European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Organisations Department Head Wilfred Schulze has invited Pakistan International Airline (PIA) team to EASA headquarters in Cologne for a meeting to reinstate the Part-145 maintenance organisation approval. PIA spokesman explained that continuity of EASA Part-145 approval is subject to regular audits by EASA or its representative auditors but EASA could not perform the surveillance audits (three audits every two years period) after November 2008 due to travel restrictions imposed by the Agency considering the regional safety issues.
Therefore, as an alternate to the physical surveillance of PIA Engineering and Maintenance, EASA opted for mitigating measures, including the annual surveillance by Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) with intimation to EASA, continued monitoring by PIA Quality Assurance to ensure compliance with Part -145 standards and annual submission of monitoring / internal audit records to EASA. This arrangement continued to satisfy the agency till November 2011, PIA spokesman added.
