Parliament Translation Summary - DPM equals the Deputy Prime Minister
3 Sept 2013
 
The DPM Samiu Vaipulu returned on Saturday 31 August from a trip to China. He reported this on his visit to the House.
 

• Confirmed support of the PASO as well as ICAO in Bangkok, for Tonga
• Says the ICAO Director-General’s report was received and that they were satisfied the work carried out was in accordance with Document 9760 (Airworthiness Manual), Clause 4.3.5 which is endorsed internationally. Explains that the clause says any nation which cannot produce an aircraft, or lacks the capacity and expertise to do so, may use the aircraft of another country that is found airworthy. [Doc 9760:4.3.5 Subsequently, a State of Registry may accept the original type certificate in lieu of issuing its own or use it as a basis for issuing its own type certificate when processing an aircraft type intended to be entered on the State’s civil aircraft register for the first time. It should be done through regulations or bilateral agreements to give maximum credit to the type certification work already done by the State of Design and minimize duplicate or redundant testing that add little or no value to the overall airworthiness of the aeronautical product.]
• Says the Tongan Cabinet, in following this procedure, signed an agreement (for the MA60) with China in June 2012.
• Says he called on China’s Minister for Civil Aviation in Beijing and the Minister revealed that they had called on the New Zealand Ambassador to China “to put a stop to what New Zealand was doing to the aircraft. Because they already had an agreement signed with New Zealand.
• “The NZ Ambassador in Beijing’s response was that he and McCully clashed on this issue. The Ambassador said their concern was not really with the aircraft itself, but the company which operates the aircraft in Tonga…The NZ Ambassador says one thing and McCully says another.”

 
‘No word’ from CAA New Zealand
 

• The DPM told the Chinese Civil Aviation Minister that the owner of Real Tonga is in fact the person who takes care of Air NZ, Fiji Airways, and Virgin Australia when they arrive in Tonga.
• The DPM told the House that “to date there has never once been a comment from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand. It is only McCully who has given his own opinion.”
• He added that China also allowed New Zealand to their country to inspect the aviation problems they were concerned with. “But at our meeting (in Beijing) I was told that New Zealand had never reached China to carry out an inspection and there has never been a complaint raised by the NZ Civil Aviation Authority.”
• Vaipulu said the New Zealand Ambassador had asked Chinese authorities not to publicize the details of their discussion. “But I told the (Chinese) Civil Aviation Minister, I will release this information in Tonga, today. The reason, Lord Speaker, is so that it is known to New Zealand that the groundwork has been completed.”

 
Safety and training
 

• The DPM said the reason the aircraft has not been issued a safety certificate in America is because it is a very costly process. He said all reports on the MA60 plane crashes in Myanmar and Indonesia are publicly available at China’s Ministry of Civil Aviation Authority, and they confirm that the accidents were a result of pilot/human error.