Dear Editor – May I be given a space to respond to comments by the Director of Civil Aviation, George Satu in relations to a front page article which I authored. It appeared on Tuesday 14 June 2016.
I am rather disappointed that the Director had made an about face in what he told me.
What he told me in fact confirmed comments I had obtained earlier that day.
The fact of the matter is that I spoke to Director Satu not by phone but in person.
As a matter of fact he called me over after I had walked past him just outside the ANZ ATM at Panatina Plaza on Monday afternoon (13 June June).
We were standing merely inches away from each other when he started telling me that it was his intervention that sent the Board of Solomon Airlines running around like Chooks without head to fix the airline so it could resume normal flights by Wednesday.
“I told them (SAL BOARD) to fix the Airline situation by Thursday (last week) or I will sack them because I cannot compromise the safety and security of the people of this country. That’s my job,” that’s almost word for word in what he told me.
He also told me that he was submitting his report on the Solomon Airlines situation to his chairman who is the Attorney General by either Wednesday or Thursday this week.
Unless I mistook him for another person, which is very, very unlikely as I have known the man in a professional capacity for many years.
For example, he and I were on a flight to Brisbane last year when he was under suspension – he in Business Class and I was sitting immediately behind him in a Belama Class seat.
So the possibility of mistaking him for another person is zilch.
What business is to me to make up such a story, quoting a senior government official such as the Director of CAASI? Director Satu is either stonewalling or exercising his ego.
The public is now waiting to see what he does about the letter written to him by one of his CAASI advisors on the appointment of John Francis McCormick as the new CEO of Solomon Airlines.
Mr Director, it takes a man to be a man, not only when it suits.
Speak with one voice not multiple ones.
Alfred Sasako
Honiara