The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said today it has downgraded the safety rating for the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) after a review found that the agency does not meet International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards.
The FAA said that CAAM received a Category 2 rating, which means that the agency “is deficient in one or more areas, such as technical expertise, trained personnel, record keeping and/or inspection procedures.” CAAM previously was assigned a Category 1 rating, which means that it complied with ICAO standards for aviation safety oversight; it had held the Category 1 rating since 2003.
The FAA emphasized that the rating, issued following an assessment of CAAM in April, was based on an assessment of CAAM, not of any individual airline. The Category 2 rating means that Malaysian carriers may continue existing service to the United States but may not establish new service.
The assessment was conducted under the FAA’s International Aviation Safety Assessment program, which regularly evaluates the civil aviation authorities of countries with air carriers that fly to the United States, that have applied to fly to the United States or that participate in code-sharing agreements with U.S. airlines. The assessments are designed to determine whether the agencies are in compliance with ICAO safety standards.