Bahamian authorities have suspended the air operator's certificate of the regional carrier Flamingo Air following a fatal accident involving a Cessna 402. The Civil Aviation Authority Bahamas said the certificate had been “temporarily suspended” after two safety occurrences involving the operator on 10 July.
The more serious of the two occurred when a Cessna 402C, registered C6-FLX, crashed on approach to San Andros Airport in North Andros. Nine passengers and one pilot were on board. All ten people aboard died.
Two occurrences on the same day
The second event involved a separate Flamingo Air flight bound for Mayaguana, which experienced technical malfunctions on the same day. That aircraft returned safely to Nassau and all passengers disembarked without injury, but it caught fire on the airport surface shortly after landing.
It was the combination of the two occurrences, rather than the accident alone, that led the regulator to suspend the operator's certificate while it examines the airline's operations.
The investigation
The accident investigation is being led by Bahamian authorities, with support from the United States National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators have not published findings, and no cause has been established.
At this stage of any inquiry the work is deliberately broad. Investigators typically examine the aircraft's mechanical condition and maintenance history, the weather at the time, human factors, and the operator's procedures, narrowing the field only as physical evidence and recorded data are recovered and analysed. Preliminary reports commonly take weeks, and final reports considerably longer.
Suspension as a precaution
A temporary suspension of an air operator's certificate is a precautionary regulatory measure rather than a finding of fault. It allows a civil aviation authority to pause commercial operations while it satisfies itself that an operator's systems, maintenance and procedures meet the required standard. Certificates suspended on this basis can be restored once the regulator is satisfied, and the step carries no implication about the eventual conclusions of the accident investigation.
For the communities of the Bahamian out islands, the practical consequence is immediate. Small operators flying light twins such as the Cessna 402 provide the scheduled links between scattered island settlements and Nassau, and the withdrawal of one of them removes connections that are not easily replaced.
Sources: FlightGlobal, Simple Flying. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Daniel Okafor.
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