David Learmount/LONDON
EUROPEAN UNION (EU) nations have been urged to take immediate action against unsafe foreign airlines which operate into EU airports. Action at national level, sanctioned by the European Council of Ministers, is a precursor to a united EU policy to be implemented in December.
Just-released details of the policy, dubbed the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) procedure, reveal that the strategy is based upon the organised gathering and sharing of specific safety information about foreign-airline standards among the EU states. In addition, similar data will be exchanged with the US Federal Aviation Adminstration and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
European citizens, have a right to the safety levels provided by EU airlines, which carry one-third of the world's passengers, but have fewer than 10% of its accidents, explains the European Commission (EC). The crash of a Turkish Birgenair Boeing 757 off the Dominican Republic on 6 February, killing 189 Germans sparked a resolution in the European Parliament and which led to the SAFA programme.
The SAFA strategy, almost identical to that already employed by the FAA, includes three main aims:
to devise and implement systems to assess the safety of both individual "foreign" carriers and of "the capability of their State of registration to ensure long-term compliance with international safety standards";
to apply pressure on ICAO to take a more active stance on safety;
to include a safety clause and the right to audit foreign carriers contracted by European tour operators in all bilateral air-service agreements.
The European Civil Aviation Conference and European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) have been tasked with putting the programme into practice this year.
Meanwhile, the EC has undertaken to draft the detailed Council Directive for adoption by the EU Council of Ministers in December. It will include, the EC says, an obligation on EU states to ground aircraft either found to be, or suspectedof being, dangerous.
The EC will also present a proposal for a European Aviation Safety Authority, which would have constitutional power not now available to the JAA.
Source: Flight International
