Airlines
Regulators Ground South African Express
CAA also suspends regional airline’s maintenance approvals

The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) on Thursday suspended South African Express’s air operator certificate and maintenance approvals following the agency’s discovery of “serious non-noncompliance” of an unspecified nature during a safety audit. The authority has also suspended the certificates of airworthiness of nine of the airline’s 21 airplanes. The SACAA said it does not make details of its audit findings public, but that it found 17 cases of non-compliance, including five that it categorized as Level 1 findings. The airline’s fleet includes 10 Bombardier Q400 turboprops, two CRJ700s, seven CRJ200s, one CRJ100, and a single Embraer ERJ-145.