A successful rescue mission in fierce weather that captivated the world on 23 March 2019. This is the story of the Viking Sky: a cruise ship with 1373 people on board which lost power off the coast of Norway. The strong winds and high waves made the rescue operation even more dramatic. A

If a pilot is looking for a job and goes online to check the vacancies, it comes as no surprise that broker agencies dominate the job market. In the past decade brokers – in all shapes and sizes – have filled a void created by airlines who were not able or willing to offer permanent or

Regulators from across the globe are meeting today in Texas (USA), to discuss a possible return to service of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX. The FAA is currently reviewing Boeing’s proposed ‘software fix’ and is already looking ahead at taking the plane back to the sky.

Too late! 

A lot has been written about the two recent tragedies and loss of life involving Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Clearly there are serious questions to be asked about what happened and why, and the exact failure modes and factors that were part of each event. But I would like to step back for a

Over the past two years Europe’s Data4Safety programme – aimed at enhancing safety through Big Data mining – has been shaping up from the initial conceptual ideas to where we are today: a well-defined programme that is on the verge of delivering its first tangible results. So where are we

Flight delays in Europe have doubled last year and passengers have been warned to expect even “more misery” this summer. While the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system is fully stretched to its capacity limit, the creation of a fully-functioning Single European Sky (SES) is still a distant

Labour inspectorates, employment ministries and civil aviation authorities, airlines, air crew and EU decision makers met in Brussels in early April at a workshop on “Socially Responsible Air Transport”. The unique configuration of the workshop is an initiative of the EU Commission, as a

The Signatories support the European regulatory authorities in producing a robust, harmonised, EU-wide regulatory safety framework that enables the safe, secure, efficient and fair integration of drones in the aviation system, and fosters broad public acceptance.

Two publications this month shed some rare illumination on this question and the life of aircrew. They don’t make for comfortable reading. The first is the EU Commission’s report “Aviation Strategy for Europe: Maintaining and promoting high social standards”, an attempt to get a grasp of

Unauthorised drones are arriving at airports and this is not good news. The counter-drone industry is working on solutions for protecting airports. Should airports invest more in drone detection, identification and drone neutralisation systems? For operational reasons – the answer is

Edwin Tasma and David Abad, members of the ECA’s Helicopter Working Group delivered two key presentations at EASA’s Rotorcraft Symposium. Their mission: bringing their operational experience into the decision-making process at EU level & ultimately – improving safety!