On 23-24 February, some 50 European pilots attended in Brussels the ECA Aviation Safety Day to discuss how this “invisible hand” called Europe affects their profession and how pilots can contribute to the future of aviation safety. The event also showed the need for pilots to get involved, given the many challenges ahead.

For the second year in a row, ECA organised a special event placing aviation safety at the centre. Pilots were briefed on the functioning of the EU Institutions and how ECA and - more importantly – how pilots can actively contribute to shape European aviation safety legislation. The idea was to interact as much as possible with the audience and to provide them with real examples how the European institutions, Eurocontrol and the European Aviation Safety Agency affect their everyday piloting, even if the individual pilots may not always realise their huge impact.

During the 2-day event, the ECA Team, assisted by pilot experts from its Members and external speakers, covered issueslike laser attacks, security screening differentiation, EU research projects such as CleanSky and new cockpit technologies, EU Safety Strategy and Health and Safety.

A direct result of the event is a move to bring our Member Associations together on Health and Safety issues and to involve ECA in workshops on new cockpit technologies. ECA is also considering getting involved in the CleanSky stakeholder consultation.

But the main success of the event is probably that it showed that each individual pilot is an expert in their field; and every pilot can shape their own profession. ECA is hopeful that this event inspired new pilots to get involved in ECA, in order to contribute to the wide range of safety issues covered by ECA - Working Groups (for details see http://www.eurocockpit.be/pages/eca-structure). So, if we ‘caught the bug’, feel free to contact ECA through your national pilots’ association!