Global airline blacklist unlikely

The idea of creating a global blacklist for unsafe airlines has been given a thumbs down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Its president, Roberto Kobeh Gonzales, said he does not have a mandate to start one. But he agreed to work on safety solutions with the European Union’s transport commissioner.

This was after both the Commissioner and France had called for a world aviation black list in the wake of a Yemeni Airbus A310 airliner crash.

In Brussels, Antonio Tajani was asked if the recent loss of an Air France A330, with 228 lives,
meant that airline too should be targetted.

The Commissioner said: “An accident can’t determine if a carrier should be blacklisted or not. It’s the safety level which makes us put it on. Unfortunately, if an accident is caused by weather, we can’t put the weather on the black list. I have proposed a strategy of international cooperation instead. I stress that I agree completely with the International Civil Aviation Organisation president to have a global strategy.”

The plan the French called for would be hard to implement, and would require many governments’ political backing.

In the Yemenia crash near Comoros in the Indian Ocean 152 people were killed.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: Air traffic, Transport