Air Niugini Offers Dangerous Goods Training To External Customers
November 18, 2019
Air Niugini is the only organization in the country offering Dangerous Goods(DG) training to external clients under the airline’s Part 141 training organization and issues certificates and licenses under Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Civil Aviation Rule(CAR) part 92.
A recent DG training conducted at the airline’s training centre at 7 mile in Port Moresby saw a total twenty (20) participants from eight organisations, among them nine personnel from the Papua New Guinea Defense Force Air Transport Wing.
Also in attendance were staff from Ok Tedi Mining Limited, Hevi-Lift PNG Limited, Central Aviation, Heli Solutions, Nacap PNG, Keris Cargo and Air Niugini.
Dangerous goods are articles or substances that pose hazard to health, safety, property and environment.
Air Niugini Non-Technical Training Instructor, Martin Tugano explained that companies who deal with chemicals need to undergo this training to help them understand what dangerous goods are and how they can safely prepare for transportation including airplanes.
Tugano highlighted that the major challenge faced by the airlines today is “hidden dangerous goods” like lithium batteries, aerosols, paints, mercury, human or animal blood or body samples and tissues that are not carefully checked.
Lithium batteries include power banks, mobile phone batteries, laptop batteries, electronic cigarettes and batteries in toy cars. Aerosols include hair sprays and body sprays. These are amongst the many hidden items passengers carry in their bags that are not confiscated by security or not declared upon check-in at the airline check-in counter.
Tugano said “ These hidden dangerous goods pose high risk to the airlines, passengers and crew and this is the challenge airlines face every day. Dangerous goods can be flammable liquids, explosive, radio-active materials, dangerous chemicals, compressed gases, poisons and aerosols among others.
“Passengers must comply and answer airline’s dangerous goods safety questions during check-in. These questions are necessary so that any risk to the aircraft and its passengers and crew posed by hidden dangerous goods are eliminated or minimized on the ground rather than in the air.”
The twenty participants apart from receiving certificates and licenses under CASA PNG, CAR Part 92 and Air Niugini’s Part 141 Training Organisation, they are also equipped with current and up-to-date training information from the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) Manual.
Tugano added, “We have trained many nationals and expatriates in all sectors of work, mostly targeting mining, exploration, airlines, freight forwarding and chemical manufacturing companies. Air Niugini is the only training organization in PNG where we can offer DG courses to external clients.”
He emphasized that transportation of dangerous goods by air is very restricted and therefore has encouraged those companies who require dangerous goods training to contact Air Niugini’s Training centre.
“We have highly qualified instructors who can deliver training to your company’s needs. We can also provide on-site training if you have more than 10 participants,” he said.
Apart from the air transport training, Air Niugini will also provide training on Dangerous Goods by Sea, International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) early next year. The airline is currently in consultation with the National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA) for this training.
For further information and bookings, please contact Air Niugini on (675) 327 1481/ 73725101 or email: ekila@airniugini.com.pg or mtugano@airniugini.com.pg
Corporate Communications Department
Wednesday 13th November, 2019