By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

REGULATIONS clamping down on the practice of air “hacking” are imminent, Tourism and Aviation Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar revealed yesterday.

According to the minister, the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority will soon issue an advisory of the necessary regulations to the public.

“I’m in consultation with the director general of the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr D’Aguilar said yesterday outside Cabinet. “I think that he is about to issue the necessary regulations and to advise the public (of the same).

“Obviously there is a period where you decide to roll out those regulations that you have to notify the public and so I am hoping that that period will happen shortly.

“The director general has a process, which I’m not in a position right now to tell you what all the steps are, but he is following those steps and I expect something imminently.”

The minister previously said these regulations would come by the end of this month.

Whenever the regulations are made public, it would come more than a year after the tragic January 17, 2018, plane crash off Mastic Point, Andros, which killed six people including the pilot.

Following the incident, the Air Accident Investigation Department recommended that the BCAA “increase its surveillance and oversight of the general aviation sector and put in place policies to reduce the high incidence of unauthorised commercial operations”.

The January 2018 crash was not the first time a flight operated by a “hacker” resulted in deaths in The Bahamas, but aviation officials pledged an unprecedented effort to clamp down on the “hacking” practice in the aftermath.

BCAA last year revealed initiatives to clamp down on illegal flight operations.

These initiatives were to include requiring Bahamian pilots holding foreign licences to apply for Bahamian licences, a public education air safety campaign and the creation of a multi-agency law enforcement task force.

At a press conference last year, BCAA director general Captain Charles Beneby said: “Any attempt by a member of the public to engage such services makes that person complicit in an illegal act. This is a warning to all persons that are engaged in such activities, now is the time to stop. We’ve talked about this before my time. We won’t talk about it any more.”

Mr Beneby also said more manpower is needed to properly police the sector, ensuring operators all have requisite certifications.

The AAID also recommended in a report that a “plan of action be instituted to ensure all airmen who are owners or operators of foreign registered aircraft are in possession of Bahamas-issued licences as required by CAGR”.

The AAID recommended that surveillance be increased to “ensure all airmen who are owners/operators of foreign-registered aircraft, they are in possession of required medical certificates while operating those foreign-registered aircraft in the Bahamas airspace”.

Policies and procedures requiring all valid licence applicants must be familiar with Bahamian air laws and procedures have also been recommended.