Red Sea crash spurs call for airline naming and shaming

By Martin Banks

Date: 15/01/04

THE European Parliament this week called for better safeguards to protect air passengers in the wake of the Red Sea charter flight disaster, in which 148 people died.

MEPs want a system of naming airlines that are banned from flying in one or more EU countries. Switzerland only revealed a 2002 ban on Flash, the airline owning the aircraft that ditched in the Red Sea, after disaster struck.

Most of those who died in the 3 January horror were French tourists returning from Egyptian holiday resort Sharm el-Sheikh. They would have been unaware of the problems found with the aircraft in Switzerland.

At a specially convened debate at the Parliament in Strasbourg on 12 January, MEPs said they hoped the tragedy would spur governments to go public with information about bans imposed on airlines in EU member states.

Belgian MEP Nelly Maes, Parliament's rapporteur on the safety of foreign aircraft and leader of the European Free Alliance group, said: "As a matter of urgency, the European Commission should establish a system of naming foreign airlines that are banned from flying in one or more member state. The accident in Egypt shocked us all and made it clear we still do not have adequate safety measures in place in Europe.

"People rightly ask how it can be that an aircraft can be refused landing rights in Switzerland but can land in other European countries."

Maes criticized the European Commission and Council of Ministers for their "unacceptable" failure to reach agreement on the amount of information that should be made public.

"Every EU citizen who boards a plane must be satisfied that the aircraft has been properly inspected in accordance with a common set of rules and safety standards," she said.

Maes insisted that the Flash tragedy could provide the impetus for renewed efforts to make progress on aviation safety in the EU, "just as the Prestige oil tanker disaster helped to focus minds on the need to improve maritime safety".

Last week, the UK broke with tradition by naming airlines it has grounded. Italian Liberal deputy Paolo Costa, chairman of the Parliament's transport committee, said the decision was exactly what the Parliament wanted at an EU level.

"It is good news, but it would be much better news if everyone would agree to do it," he said.

Costa added that aircraft banned from one country should be banned from all.

In October, Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a directive that would oblige the Commission toissue an annual report naming airlines associated with an increased safety risk. EU governments, however, have rejected the directive in the form it was approved by the Parliament, so a conciliation will begin next Tuesday (20 January) in an attempt to reach a compromise.

Under current regulations, the 41 states in the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) share information about safety checks carried out on foreign aircraft, but do not publish it.

ECAC Executive Secretary Raymond Benjamin said publishing results of safety checks would create a "kind of panic".

"You would place information in the hands of the general public which, however respectable it may be, is not able to judge properly."

Following the Red Sea charter flight disaster on 3 January 2004 in which 148 people died, MEPs want to introduce a system of naming airlines that are banned from flying in one or more European Union countries.