South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)
The process for the approval of any aerodrome, inclusive of a heliport, is as follows:
a) The applicant applies to the SACAA by submitting an application form.
b) A preliminary/initial inspection is conducted by Inspectors from the SACAA, in this case comprising of an Infrastructure Inspector and a Flight Operations Inspector to assess the suitability of the proposed site for helicopter operations and a preliminary inspection report with recommendations is generated and forwarded to the applicant.
c) The application is published in Government Gazette (in this case Gazette #41871 of 12 September 2018) for public comment.
d) As soon as the recommendations have been implemented, the applicant forwards a request to the SACAA for a final inspection to be conducted.
e) The initial issue of the approval and restrictions thereof is subject to the applicant complying with the SACAA regulations as well as consideration of any public comments received through the publication process. (In this case there was no comments in relation to any environmental matter).
f) Licenses/approvals are issued for a period of up to 5 years, as provided for under the Civil Aviation Act, Act No 13 of 2009, and, during the interleading periods, compliance is monitored through surveillance inspections, as per international standard.
1. The specified process was followed with the Ultimate Heli application.
2. Third party information can only be released with the consent of the approval holder. The reports contain 3rd party proprietary and commercially sensitive information, is confidential in nature and may contain personal information, which was provided in confidence, and the SACAA does not have consent from the operator to release such.
