A-two day workshop on Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT), Loss of Control-I (LOC) and Competence Based Training and Assessment (CBTA) was conducted in the EAL group Aviation Academy from November 22-23, 2022.

Opening the workshop, Director General of the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority,Getachew Mengistie said, “Even if some African Nations, including Ethiopia, have been testifying progressive successes in ensuring aviation safety over the past few years, Africa as a continent has a long way to go before it manages to cope up with the international standards and the average incident and accident rate per million departures stipulated in ICAO member states.”

He further said that the plights of aviation industry revolving around safety issues do require strict adherence to the standards and principles of the ICAO coupled with perpetual training sessions to revitalize the knowledge and skill of aviation personnel. Upset Prevention and Loss of Control are no different. Therefore, such types of training are vital to scale up the acumen of aviation professionals to understand aviation precision thereby reducing accident rate in the air transport service.

The DG also stressed that the two days training workshop will be fruitful in terms of sensitizing pilots and cabin crew members with the fundamental skills of mitigating accident; which at the same time will pave the way for sharing experiences among the African aviation family.

Earlier on the event, ICAO’s Deputy Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Arthemon Ndikumana said in a virtual message, “I would like to thank Kenya for co-organizing and Ethiopia for hosting the workshop, especially the Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority, whose Director General is present to launch the event today.”

The Deputy Director further highlighted the significance of the workshop saying “on the pursuit of a new global target of zero aviation fatalities by 2030; as part of its comprehensive vision set from 2023-2035.”

“Therefore, such workshops are important to enhance the knowledge and skill of the trainers, and implement them in their duties,” he added.

Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopian Airlines Group, Mesfin Tasew on his part said that ensuring aviation safety is the primary concern of Airlines. That is why we have rigorous pilot training programs, stringent safety and strict safety audit in the aviation academy which recently has been upgraded into a university.

The workshop entertained both theoretical and practical aspects in the simulator.