Turbulent times for CemAir
It's not the first time the company's CEO has been in the media spotlight.
It seems there could be more to the suspension of operations at CemAir than meets the eye. This has led the Herald to delve a little deeper.
So who exactly is the CEO of the beleaguered airline? His name is Miles van der Molen and it seems this is not the first time he has been in the spotlight.
We’ve compiled a timeline of occasions when Mr van der Molen has been in the media for one reason or another.
1999
An IOL article reported that about 300 people gathered in the heat at Gallagher Estate, Midrand to honour the memories of 10 victims of an aircrash near Germiston.
Nine Documentation and Training International (DTI) company employees died on Monday, December 6, in a Piper Chieftain aircraft. The pilot, Jan Dirk Heyns, was also killed.
- For DTI, the crash meant it lost more than half its staff.
- They were: Nicola Granelli, 28, Annelie Buchner, 28, Carl Struckman, 29, Annelize Benade, 26, Moagi Speelman, 22, Tracy Diehl, 28, Umarshee Reddy, 26, Roger Minies, 27 and Helena Gouws, 28.
- The team was on its way to Namibia to train De Beers employees on a new computer system. The plane, owned by Flightline Charter Services (owner and CEO Miles van der Molen), crashed minutes after taking off from the Rand Airport on the East Rand around 7am.
- It ploughed into a dry river bed near the junction of the N3, N12 and N17 highways. There were no survivors.
- The Civil Aviation Authority described the accident as ‘the worst single civil aviation accident in almost 20 years’.
2000
In 2000 the Sudan Tribune reported that an aircraft belonging to Flightline was taking off from Inhambane, Mozambique, en route to South Africa when it was reported to have hit high tension wires and crashed, killing the pilot and the technician who were on board.
Investigating the fraudulent issuance of a license to the pilot, the South Africa Civil Aviation Authority reportedly found that CN Delacovia did not hold a valid CPL with instrument rating.
The charter service was subsequently shut down by South Africa Civil Aviation Authority.
2002
An IOL report said that Edenvale Regional Court Magistrate PJ du Plessis found that negligence by Mr van der Molen, the owner of the crashed Piper Chieftain, had led to the death of the nine passengers and their pilot in December 1999.
- At the hearing; the magistrate said Mr van der Molen, the owner and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Flightline Charter Services, falsified test flight documents of the newly purchased Piper Chieftain.
- Mr van der Molen, he said, was also negligent in allowing the overloading of the aircraft.
- The false documents led the CAA to give an airworthiness certificate for the aircraft.
- The CAA report into the cause of the crash found that when Mr van der Molen had purchased the Piper Chieftain from the Democratic Republic of Congo, there were anomalies in the certification process of the plane in South Africa.
- Magistrate du Plessis said Mr van der Molen had conducted a test flight on the plane even though he was not a certified test pilot.
- He went on to say that although the data from the flight result was altered, the CAA had accepted the report and issued an airworthiness certificate for the plane.
- The inquest also found that Mr van der Molen had added incorrect documentation to the pilots’ handbook which stated that the plane could carry more weight than allowed.
- The plane was about 360kg overweight at the time of the crash.
- The inquest found that the company did not weigh the baggage of passengers.
The Sudan Tribune also reported that according to the inquest conducted by the South Africa Civil Aviation Authority, and which was concluded in 2002, Mr van Molen – in his capacity as the chief executive – plus the company as an entity were found to be in violation of ‘a series of rules and regulations’, indicated as follows:
Mr van der Molen also inserted documents into the aircraft’s operating manual which did not reflect the correct maximum take-off mass allowed. The papers he inserted were photo-copied from another manual and reflected information for an aircraft fitted with specialised equipment.
The time for the aircraft to undergo a mandatory periodic inspection, as stipulated by aviation legislation, had also expired at the time the flight crashed.
The Flightline Charter Service was found to have deviated significantly from the South Africa Civil Aviation Authority approved Operators Manual in terms of the critical issue of weight and balance of the aircraft. Actually, the aircraft was more than 800 pounds overweight when it crashed.
2013
Scheduled flights to Margate Airport begin on 1 November 1, 2013.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: CemAir celebrates one year in Margate
2014
In September 2014, CemAir increased its scheduled flights to and from Margate Airport to eight per week.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN: Flight service takes off
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2018
The Herald reports that CemAir is temporarily suspended.
CemAir confirmed that the suspension was due to a documentation issue identified by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) in the annual audit of the CemAir aircraft maintenance organisation.
READ MORE HERE: CemAir has been grounded – for now
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Former deputy mayor of the now Ray Nkonyeni Municipality Johnny de Wet (right) with CemAir CEO and owner Miles van der Molen in 2016.
