It’s about Europe, it’s about YOU - Europe’s Citizens* It was a perfect opportunity for the EU to fulfill its pledges to “listen and learn” from its EU’s citizens and “keep delivering on citizens’ rights”: When over 2.500 pilots and cabin crew rallied for safe flight duty times across Europe under the motto ‘Walkout for safety’ - and with over 100.000 signatures for a Safety Petition - the EU Institutions could have taken this as a signal from its citizens on how to “build the European Union of the future together”1. Instead, the EU’s safety agency EASA rebuffed the EUwide action simply as a “disinformation campaign”, aiming to play with the fear of passengers.
However, the pilots’ and cabin crews’ safety
concerns are not new. They have repeatedly warned that the newly proposed flight time limitation rules need to undergo substantial changes before they can be considered a ‘safe package’. With rallies and demonstrations on 22 January thousands of aircrews brought fresh attention to this particularly important issue. From Larnaca (Cyprus) to Keflavik International Airport (Iceland) thousands of pilots and cabin crew distributed flyers, flowers, badges and t-shirts to passengers and colleagues at airports. In Brussels, a delegation of pilots and cabin crew met with the cabinet of EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas to hand over a Safety Petition with more than 100.000 signatures. The Petition was also handed to the Chair of the European Parliament Transport Committee, MEP Brian Simpson. Although the Parliament’s formal role in the adoption process on flight time limitations is very limited, it is to be hoped that the elected representatives of Europe’s citizens are closer to their citizens and that they will not simply ‘rubber stamp’ the EASA proposal, as the EU Commission and many EU Member States intend to do. “It’s about Europe. It’s about YOU!” remains a good reminder that this is about the safety of each and every EU citizen on board of a European airplane! * ”It’s about Europe. It’s about YOU” is the slogan of the 2013 European Year of Citizens campaign, designated by the EU Commission “We want to keep delivering on citizens’ rights and this is why we are dedicating a full year to those at the heart of the European project - our citizens”, stated Vice-President Viviane Reding, EU- Commissioner responsible for Justice and Citizenship. “The European Year of Citizens is an opportunity for us to listen and learn from you what you want and how we can build the European Union of the future together”. Source: EU Commission Press Release: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-121253_en.htm 1
Nico Voorbach, ECA President
President’s column January was a special month. ECA and its Member Associations across Europe showed the determination to fight against the proposed new air crew fatigue regulation on 22 Jan. Together with cabin crew members from the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) thousands of flyers where distributed to the passengers of our aircraft explaining why the current proposal is potentially dangerous. Further in this Cockpit News you can read a detailed article about this ‘Walkout for Safety’.
On 23 January EUROCONTROL issued its European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions. This plan, called EAPPRE, includes provisions for airline pilots to be closely involved in identifying potential runway safety issues and working on means to mitigate runway safety deficiencies at a local level. The action plan provides a comprehensive set of stakeholder-specific guidelines and recommendations on how to reduce the number of runway excursions. ECA experts and staff worked very close together with EUROCONTROL on this Action Plan and we are very supportive of its guidelines and recommendations. On a personal note on 28 Jan the Queen of The Netherlands, Queen Beatrix,
IFALPA Negotiations Seminar, 18-20 March 2013, Helsinki IFALPA, on behalf of host member, the Finnish Pilots Association, invites you to join a Negotiation Seminar in Helsinki, Finland from 18 to 20 March 2013. The course is designed as an introduction and guide to Industrial Negotiation in the airline industry from a pilot’s perspective. It is suitable for both newly-elected pilot representatives with little negotiating experience, as well as more experienced representatives that wish to further develop their skills.
announced that she will step down on April 30 2013 leaving the monarchy to Crown-Prince Willem-Alexander. He is an aircraft pilot and I still remember when I was flying for KLM Cityhopper, Willem-Alexander was flying as a copilot on the Fokker 100 and 70. He needed to gain this experience in order to fly the Dutch Government Aircraft. He always joined our conversations and acted as one of us. I am pleased to say that like his Grandfather, he has a passion for flying and I’d like to welcome to the throne such a great supporter of our profession.
To register, please click on the registration link.
EU stakeholders team up on reducing Runway Excursion The latest accident of the Carpatair flight from Pisa to Rome veering off the runway at Fiumicino airport on 2 Feb came as a reminder about the safety risks posed by runway excursion and the need to better prevent from this type of accidents. Just a few days after a similar accident at Newark Liberty International Airport, the aviation world is looking into new ways to address this issue.
To reduce the number of runway excursions in Europe,
EUROCONTROL together with a wide-range of EU stakeholders has recently released an ambitious action plan, called European Action Plan for the Prevention of Runway Excursions (EAPPRE). The action plan provides a comprehensive set of stakeholder-specific guidelines and recommendations on how to better prevent runway excursions. It also includes provisions for airline pilots to be closely involved in identifying potential runway safety issues and working on means to mitigate runway safety deficiencies at a local level. Globally runway excursions account for a substantial share of all accidents, i.e. 19%. In Europe, 13% of all accidents in 2011 were runway excursions where an aircraft veers off or overruns the runway on take-off or landing. The goal of the new action plan is therefore to reduce the occurrence of one of the most common types of air accidents by providing operational and system recommendations to aircraft operators, air navigation service providers, airports, and regulatory authorities. The new action plan also emphasizes the need to ensure full pilot involvement at airport level in all decision-making processes. ECA has been very closely involved in the drafting process of the action plan and has successfully advocated for pilots, as front-end users, to be involved in all relevant decision-making processes at airport level. ECA Press Release “Tackling runway excursions: new plan to enhance safety” Jan 23 2013
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