Understanding the Chinese MA60 aircraft case

The two planes purchased from China, and delivered since April 2015 by Camair-co are still not operational.

Their reliability is strongly debated; the government got involved and the case just keeps bouncing back.

Fifteen minutes! This is the time it took the Board of Directors of the Cameroon Civil Aviation Authority (CCAA) in a meeting on December 30, 2015, to sack its CEO, Pierre Tankam. Something which did not come as a surprise.

This dismissal is the epilog of the showdown that has pitted between the Cameroonian government and the public institution responsible for aviation safety(CCAA), for the past five years.

It all began in 2011 when Yaounde announced the purchase of two MA60 aircraft from China. Beijing delivered two for the price of three.

These planes had 50 seats and were to be used for regional routes. They are unlikely to fly in China and are included on the blacklist of the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration. Because of Doubts in their reliability, the CCAA increased the obstacles: she first made sure that the delivery from China fell behind and then refused the certification of the two MA60 required for commissioning.

She also demanded that the manual is translated from Chinese into English and French. “This is the minimum, argued a company pilot, who was welcoming the prudence of the CCAA. Imagine that a failure occurs at 6000 meters altitude and the crew could not rely on the manual!”

Where are the investigations?

Dissatisfied, the Government has established an interdepartmental commission that found out that the devices could fly. Pierre Tankam finally certified the aircraft in November 2015, not without expressing his reservations in writing.

But all these took so long that the pilots had to return to China to upgrade their training, thus the maiden flight, originally scheduled to have its inauguration on December 29, was postponed to January 23. No doubt all this has ended, costing his job.

“The CCAA is not a private corporation,” the Minister of Transport, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o rebuked while announcing the appointment of its new director, Paule Avomo Assoumou.

However, the case is far from revealing all its mysteries. Its financial structure is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry requested at the initiative of the Social Democratic Front (SDF, opposition), and according to our information, the prosecutor of the Special Criminal Court suspect the payment of kickbacks.

Why? Because in November 2013, the Exim Bank of China granted the Cameroon government “preferential loan” of 34.4 billion CFA francs (€ 52.4 million) for the purchase of aircraft. But at the same time, Brazzaville also acquired two MA60 for 14 billion CFA francs, much cheaper than Cameroon!

Moreover, according to the manufacturer’s catalog, Xi’an Industries, a plane costs about 5.6 billion CFA francs (excluding package, which includes pilot training, a stock of spare parts and maintenance package).

The investigation, for now, has not been carried out for the final destination of more than 20 billion CFA francs difference from the 34 billion guarantee loan.

This means taking the risk of making it to the sky dubiously through Chinese cooperation and its financing facilities granted particularly for the construction of infrastructure structures.

“Cameroon is making waves that would place them on the black list,” says Joshua Osih, an aerospace consultant and member of the SDF.