System Will Tell Controllers If Banned Airplane Plans To Fly
Into EU
The European Union made
headlines in March for issuing its "blacklist" of 92 airlines
banned or severely restricted from flying into its member countries
due to safety concerns. On Monday, the EU's airspace
controlling authority, Eurocontrol, announced that if a blacklisted
airline attempts to fly into the EU, a new alerting service will
let controllers know.
According to a Eurocontrol release, the new alerting system will
incorporate Eurocontrol's Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU),
which has been responsible for collecting and dispatching all
flight plans for flights entering, overflying or departing from
Europe since 1995.
The new service will issue an alert if any company or aircraft
that is listed by national authorities as posing a potential safety
risk plans to enter European airspace. National authorities in
countries which are the departure or the destination of the flight
will receive a warning, enabling them to take appropriate action.
That action could range from initiating an inspection of the plane,
to preventing the aircraft from taking off... or even preventing
the plane from entering their territory once it's already in
flight.
"This new alerting system will ensure that European countries
are informed well in advance of the arrival of any aircraft that is
the subject of safety concerns and that is on a 'banned' list,"
said Vctor M. Aguado, Director General of Eurocontrol. "The program
is the result of close cooperation between Eurocontrol, national
authorities and the Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA)
programme, and we believe it will make a tangible contribution to
passenger safety within Europe."
Eurocontrol, the
European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, has as its
primary objective the development of a seamless, pan-European air
traffic management (ATM) system which fully accommodates the growth
in air traffic, while maintaining a high level of safety, enhancing
cost-efficiency and respecting the environment.
Eurocontrol has 36 Member States: Albania, Armenia, Austria,
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the
Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United
Kingdom.