Many organisations in the civil aviation industry proudly declare that "Safety is our number one priority" or "there can be no compromise when it comes to safety". But how much of this is core belief and forms part of every decision – or how often is it just 'window dressing' for public consumption?

The European Commission has very recently launched a process to revise the EU Directive covering accident and incident investigation. This is a great opportunity for Europe to show true leadership in a complex area, and to concretely contribute to further improving safety rather than simply talk about it.

Air transport is one of the world's great safety success stories. Despite the great challenges of distance, temperature variations and great speeds, more people die each year taking a bath than flying. However, if we ever believe we have done 'enough' and that flying is as safe as it can be; then we will undo all that we have achieved., The statistic is only true because of the virtuous circle of learning from our mistakes and implementing safety improvements and learning again. That learning process is critical to the safety success, and the availability of the data from which to learn is crucial.

Hard data is widely available; my airline is not alone in having a constant monitoring system aboard every aircraft to warn when safety margins are reduced, long before such minor incidents coincidentally add up to an accident. But knowing that a safety margin was reduced is less than half way to understanding why – and this is one of the challenges facing the Commission and the other EU Institutions as they address the question of accident and incident investigation.

Pilots – and all the other professionals in aviation – are just like everyone else; they rely on their jobs to feed, clothe and house their families. In order that an individual pilot will fully engage with the process of understanding the causes of an incident, which may have lead to reduced safety margins, he or she must have real confidence that the sole aim of such an investigation is to improve safety and that there is no risk to their livelihood.

Consequently, the challenge in framing the legislation is to completely divorce the safety investigation – which should be inadmissible in any disciplinary or judicial process – from any judicial investigation, which should collect its evidence respecting the rights of individuals not to incriminate themselves. This has been ECA's position in the past and will be our position in future.

Professional pilots are committed to aviation safety as part of everything we do. The travelling public does not want us ever to compromise our professionalism when it comes to their safety. ECA will strongly support all those who take the same attitude.