Sir - The editorial "An unsafe idea" (Flight International, 10-16 April) asserts that the US Federal Aviation Administration's initiative, which "...has led to the application of sanctions against unsafe airlines, or airlines from unsafe countries", was endorsed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
This is inaccurate. ICAO, an intergovernmental body of 184 states, does not endorse initiatives by individual states. Its safety-oversight mechanism, born out of concerns expressed over many years by its governing bodies about the ability of some countries to oversee air-carrier safety, was established by the ICAO Council in October 1994.
The ICAO mechanism conducts safety oversight of states (at their request), using an ICAO team of safety experts to identify deficiencies and offer advice and assistance in addressing these deficiencies. Follow-up action is built in to the mechanism, and more than 24 states have requested assistance already.
Source: Flight International
