Violations of flight safety and aviation security legislation were identified at Vitebsk airport

The Vitebsk transport prosecutor's office conducted a planned inspection of compliance with legislation aimed at ensuring flight safety and aviation security at the Vitebsk branch of the State Enterprise for Air Navigation Services "BelaviaNavigation" (hereinafter referred to as the Vitebsk branch).

During the inspection, it was established that the Vitebsk branch does not fully comply with the labor and rest regime for aviation personnel whose activities are related to air traffic control, which poses a potential threat to the safety of aircraft flights and is unacceptable.

In violation of the State Program for the Protection of Civil Aviation from Acts of Unlawful Interference, the branch does not ensure the proper condition of the airport perimeter fencing. In particular, in some places, the 3-meter security zone free from trees and shrubs is missing. In several sections of the wire perimeter fence, the lower rows of wire are missing, and there are openings under the fence.

This condition of the airport fence creates a certain threat to aviation security and flight safety, as it does not exclude access to the controlled area by unauthorized persons and animals. Moreover, this year there has already been an aviation incident that occurred due to an animal – a hare – penetrating the airport territory.

In violation of the requirements of current legislation, at the time of the inspection, the Vitebsk branch had not developed Regulations on the procedure for organizing the work of the airport aviation security commission.

The specified commission did not fully perform its assigned tasks of inspecting the state of aviation security at the airport, developing recommendations for eliminating identified shortcomings, and improving the level of aviation security. Facts of formalism were established during the meetings of the specified commission.

The inspection also revealed violations in the activities of the aviation security unit regarding the conduct of internal inspection checks. Required

The periodicity and diversity of the specified inspections were not observed.

Based on the identified facts, the Vitebsk Transport Prosecutor's Office issued a representation to the branch manager to eliminate violations of current legislation, which raised the issue of holding the responsible officials of the branch accountable.

The progress of eliminating the specified violations is under the control of the Vitebsk Transport Prosecutor.

Deputy Vitebsk
Transport Prosecutor
Junior Justice Counselor D.N. Kudryavtsev