The Board of the European Cockpit Association expresses its heartfelt sympathy for the families and friends of the victims of both the Helios Airways flight which perished last Sunday en route from Larnaca to Athens, and the Copterline Oy flight the previous week en route from Tallinn to Helsinki. Our thoughts are with them all at this tragic time.

These accidents reinforce ECA's determination to continue working to ensure improved safety and security of air travel remains at the top of the European air transport agenda.

ECA believes that all involved in aviation must seek to ensure that the lessons from such tragedies are learnt. Rather than engaging in speculation and seeking to apportion blame, a complete understanding of the tragic series of events leading up to these disasters is necessary to enable the industry to avoid their repetition.

Despite the high safety record of air travel, particularly in Europe, these accidents reinforce the need for regulators to relentlessly work with all the key industry stakeholders to anticipate the problems and ensure that no avoidable risk is taken in pursuit of commercial gain. Every lost aircraft carries pilots with families and friends, and the vast majority also carry other crew and passengers; all of whom are too valuable to be exposed to avoidable risks. ECA will therefore continue its efforts to help establish clear and well-defined European wide safety standards.

Our thoughts are with tose affected by these accidents, and our determination is to ensure that such tragedies are avoided.

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