The American specialist Javier “J” Rodríguezwho led the team of technical advisors hired by the Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation (IDAC) during the recent audit carried out by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that the country demonstrated that it correctly complies with the operational safety standards required by the aforementioned organization.
“To give peace of mind to aviation users in the Dominican Republic, I can inform you that in that final review carried out by the FAA, no failure was found that was not duly corrected,” he stated.
The former FAA technician recognized that the participation of the President of the Republic Luis Abinaderwas a key factor in the efforts to overcome the great challenge of the IASA audit, based on the standards of the ICAOsince under the conditions detected in 2020 and possibly until 2022, the country was not prepared to save category 1.
“The synergy that emerged between President Abinader and Director Porcella in following up on the audit issue, from the first day that possibility was announced, was very important in the timely and effective response offered by the Dominican State in the face of the imminent risk. that the country’s aviation faced,” he noted.
When evaluating the actions of the IDAC authorities, Rodríguez highlighted that the general director of the entity, Hector Porcellashowed an impressive understanding of the problem and took care of putting together the strategy to prevent the situation from getting out of hand for the country.
“From the first moment Porcella acted with a clear sense of urgency and took care of hiring the group of international experts with the appropriate qualifications, plus 20 Dominican technicians who worked at forced pace and without hours to review the entire system and fine-tune the regulations, regulations and operational protocols that had not been duly updated for several years,” he said.
He said that between President Abinader, the Minister of Tourism, David Collado and the aviation authorities, there has been an effective interaction to promote the recovery and strengthening of the sector, making possible the notable growth of the Dominican aviation fleet, which already has three new airlines and four times more seats than those available before the pandemic. .
Rodríguez shared his impressions when participating in an interview on the program “Now for Super 7”, where he was accompanied by the American expert and former FAA technician, Joaquín Ochoa, who was part of the international advisory group hired by the IDAC.
In that sense, Ochoa referred to the new law recently approved by Congress as part of the arrangements agreed with the FAA authorities and indicated that the reform to law 491-06, enacted in 2007, had to be updated to that responded to the needs and complexities of current aviation.
“It was part of the updating process, the Law needed to be promulgated and it was already promulgated, it was sent to the FAA in draft form, so that it could issue its opinion and they gave us approval,” said Ochoa.
He maintained that the update to the Civil Aviation Law places the country in an advantageous condition to maintain a bilateral exchange relationship with the United States and the other countries of the world, since these are recommendations of the ICAO, which ensures that the States comply with those required operational safety standards, to provide peace of mind to recipient countries.
