It would have sounded ideal if the proposal to have Juba International Airport (JIA) left solely for international flights if the move would reduce airspace accidents and un-airworthy planes being dumped in the country without due care for their origin and safety and or without the authority responsible having them mechanically checked and verified for flying or carrying passengers. To leave JIA for international flights is not the solution to bring to an end the existence of the 1945 obsolete cracked irons going by the name planes. The first thing the aviation industry should do is to clear off these junks from the country and be dumped in junk yards in and outside. The suggestion of having another airport is a welcomed move only if it would be accommodating and serving small and light planes, mostly for domestic use, but with sound flying records. Planes that are not danger to the users. The international aviation rules the world over are the same which also governed the International Air transport Association (IATA) and other key players in the industry. Some make money quick operators have had joyride by bringing dead planes which are only coated forcommon use but whose flight or aviation records cannot be traced. How can a plane be licensed to operate in the country’s airspace but registered in Gambia or France. The Transport Ministry should be in position to know and understand the full background of any plane that is supposed to operate in the country. There are no two ways about this. The brokers and middlemen who are bringing in these obsolete and sky-risk death coffins should be penalized for their contribution to the death of innocent people whose crime is only to look for transport to their preferred destinations. Leaving JIA for international is not a solution to ending the riskswhich must be addressed and uprooted from and or the final root-cause.
