Would the "single skies" unitary air traffic control system over Europe have prevented this week's mid-air disaster in Germany? EU officials say it might. Derek Scally reports
The news flash on German radio came shortly after midnight: "Reports are coming in of a mid-air collision between two planes..." But this time it wasn't a collision between two decrepit aircraft somewhere in the southern hemisphere. A Russian Tupolev plane with dozens of schoolchildren on board had collided with a DHL cargo plane as they tried to avoid each other in the night sky over Lake Constance on the Swiss-German border.
Europeans now know their skies are vulnerable to apparently impossible accidents and the search for answers has given new impetus to the on-off debate on the proposed "single skies" policy for Europe.
The plan would see EU member states surrender sovereignty of their airspace to a single European authority. This new body would monitor all air traffic in Europe over a cruising altitude of 28,000 feet.
On a flight from Dublin to Berlin, for example, the first half hour might be guided by Irish air traffic control then passed to the new body for the main journey time. It would then hand over monitoring of the landing phase to German controllers.
Unions representing air traffic controllers say it will cost jobs, open the door to privatisation and sacrifice safety for profit. But the European Commission says it would shorten flight-times, simplify matters for pilots and increase safety by abolishing incompatible and overlapping aviation technology.
Officials in Brussels who complained that the proposal has been misrepresented, misunderstood or simply ignored by member states received a boost from Berlin in the wake of last Monday's mid-air collision.
"The efforts regarding a uniform European air space must be driven forward," said Mr Kurt Bodewig, the German transport minister.
However officials in Brussels were angered by commentary in the German media which went further, saying that a single air authority could have prevented the accident.
"It is an insult to the victims that people suggest a single sky policy would have prevented this accident. Nobody can say that," said Mr Gilles Gantelet, a transport spokesman for the EU Transport Commissioner, Ms Loyola de Palacio.
"But if the Swiss air traffic controller had had a better overview, perhaps he would have reacted differently."
In April the EU Commission published a report that presented the arguments in favour of a single skies policy across Europe. The current air traffic control system over Europe is a patchwork of small systems that was stitched together in the 1960s and is now under pressure from a 4 per cent annual growth in air traffic.
FRAGMENTED skies and inefficient air traffic management in Europe wastes an estimated 350,000 flight hours and €1 billion a year, the report says.
On a flight from Brussels to Rome a plane passes through the hands of nine air traffic control authorities. A Brussels to Geneva flight takes just an hour but the pilot needs to change radio frequencies nine times to keep in contact with air traffic controllers.
Five minutes before Monday's mid-air collision, the Russian pilot passed from Munich air traffic control to Zurich.
"The pilot has to adjust the radio frequency manually at this point. If the \ pilot failed to retune he would have been out of voice contact with Zürich and would not have heard the order to descend," said Mr Marin Koeppl, spokesman for Munich air traffic control. The pilot reacted to the second radio order and dived, unwittingly putting the plane on a collision course with the DHL Boeing cargo plane.
German crash investigators declined to comment on details of their investigation yesterday. However, a spokesman confirmed that frequent radio frequency changes would be abolished with open skies.
EU members states adopted the proposals last October and the Commission hopes to have a single skies policy in place over Europe by the start of 2005.
Switzerland, though not in the EU, would be fully integrated into the single skies plan following the implementation of an air transport treaty last month.
However, the proposal has run into difficulties among a handful of member states. Portugal has argued that only national authorities have the right to control Portugese airspace.
Greece has raised objections because of its tense relations with Turkey. Other countries such as France have concerns about the consequences on their national military airspace.
The Irish Government is strongly in favour of single skies in principle, as a necessity for a strongly integrated European economy, and is hopeful that the disputes will be resolved.
Commission officials are equally optimistic and have asked national governments to inform citizens about the benefits of single skies, such as shorter flight times, fewer delays and increased safety.
Chief opponents of the proposals are unions representing air traffic controllers across Europe.
Last month they went on strike, paralysing European air traffic. The union said awarding contracts competitively would cause huge job losses and result in backdoor privatisation and the sacrifice of safety for commercial profit.
"It is our duty to denounce the ideological drift that aims to apply classic rules of competition to airspace," a joint statement by striking French controllers said.
But their concerns are not shared by IMPACT, the union representing Irish air traffic controllers, who didn't participate in last month's strike.
"We don't believe airspace should be sold off to the lowest bidder, but that is not what the Commission is proposing," said Mr Michael Landers, the union's assistant general secretary with responsibility for aviation.
"It's a more technical exercise to make the airways more efficient and safer in the long run and we can see the benefits." He says massive job losses are unlikely, given the permanent shortage of air traffic controllers in Europe.
European skies are among the most regulated and safe in the world. For the Commission, some good could come out of Monday's crash if member states apply the EU philosophy of pooling powers for the common good and decades-old air corridors are redrawn to improve safety standards.
"We are not in favour of privatisation at all," Mr Gantelet insisted.
"Now it is the responsibility of governments to show their citizens that Brussels isn't taking something away, but putting something together for the interest of everybody."