Pilots criticise new crash legislation

AIR TRAVEL:THE EUROPEAN Cockpit Association has criticised EU legislation aimed at protecting families of airline passengers involved in crashes.

Under the new legislation, which is due to be introduced in the coming months, airlines operating within the EU will have to produce a complete passenger list and identify the next of kin of everyone on that list within two hours of a crash.

The legislation has also attempted to ensure air accident investigations are completely independent and free from judicial constraints, and has proposed an EU-wide network of civil aviation safety investigation authorities to offer “common standards” among member states.

The association, which represents more than 38,650 pilots from 38 countries, said the legislation failed “to provide for strict independence of accident investigations from judicial ones”.

Adrian Hinkson, the former director of safety and technical for the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association, says while he welcomes the legislation, “as proposed it lacks an ability to deal with competing interests in safety investigations and judicial investigations which can lead to an enquiry into a air incident being focused on establishing blame rather than determining what happened”.

He says that while passengers having to state next of kin was not intended to be intrusive, but to allow “immediate and rapid support” in the event of a crash, “some people might be operating in circumstances where they want to be more private”.

The European pilots and air traffic controllers welcomed some elements of the legislation but expressed concern that it did not go far enough in establishing “a more far reaching and safety-oriented” accident investigation system.

The legislation, which has already been agreed between the member states at European Council level, was backed by the European Parliament this week and is likely to come into force within months.

It is aimed at ensuring that the relatives of victims are informed of incidents in a more timely fashion and is being introduced partly because many of the relatives of the victims of the Air France crash over the Atlantic in 2008 in which 228 people died learned via the media that family members had been killed.

Ryanair said its passengers “already provide advance passenger information during the booking process and it will simply request additional information if the new proposal is passed into law”.

The European Parliament’s vice-president Siim Kallas said: “We have to be prepared. Efficient and independent investigations of civil aircraft accidents are crucial for aviation safety.”