Justice at last for dead pilot?

We hope that there is some closure and justice coming for Simnikiwe Tolo, widow of pilot Captain Thabiso Tolo, who died in the crash of a South African Civil Aviation Authority (Sacaa) aircraft he was flying six years ago.

This week, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy announced that she has asked the minister of justice to open an inquest into the deaths of Tolo and two others in the regulator’s calibration aircraft when it crashed near George.

Pilot error was initially blamed, although after the victims’ families complained to former transport minister Fikile Mbalula, an independent probe by Ethiopian investigators also found the plane was not airworthy to fly and that Sacaa had violated several of its own regulations relating to maintenance and equipment on it.

A Saaca whistle-blower who made a protected disclosure on the crash was later fired, although the regulator denies the dismissal was related.

The whistleblower has sent an even longer manuscript to Creecy and parliamentarians with his observations and misgivings.

Aviation safety demands the highest standards of probity and investigations should always been unbiased. Otherwise, bad safety practices get covered up – and more may die in future.

This will be a test case of government’s commitment to that principle.