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!

New mothers are often left to discover themselves how to smoothly transition back to work after having a child. When this new mother is also a commercial pilot, it becomes even more difficult to balance a new motherhood with the long times away from home and unsociable work schedules. How

European pilots and cabin crew are experiencing unusually high levels of fatigue, incompatible with an acceptable level of flight safety, despite recent European legislation that is supposed to counter this. A new study reveals major shortcomings of the Flight Time Limitations (FTL) – i.e.

EU and Qatari airlines will enjoy 3rd and 4th freedom traffic rights for passenger flights and ‘limited’ 5th freedom rights for cargo operations. This market opening is in line with the EU’s quest for further liberalisation in aviation and its ambition to reach agreements with other 3rd