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Air accident investigation: Parliament lays down strict criteria

Direct News Source

21-Sep-2010 A new EU law to ensure the independence of air accident inquiries was approved by the European Parliament on Tuesday.

The law also requires airlines to produce a list of those on board the plane within two hours of an accident. Before a flight, passengers will be entitled to name a person to be informed in the event of an accident.

The new EU regulation will ensure that a safety investigation into an accident is conducted free of pressure from regulatory or other authorities. Any statements taken from individuals by a safety investigator, as well as voice and image recordings inside cockpits and air traffic control units, will be used only for safety investigation, unless there is an overriding reason for disclosure to the judiciary. This will ensure that people can testify without fear to the safety investigators, whose purpose is not to attribute blame but to establish the facts.

As is the case at present, the safety investigation authority will be obliged to make public the final accident report "in the shortest possible time and if possible within twelve months of the date of the accident or serious incident".

Each Member State must set up a civil aviation accident emergency plan and ensure that all airlines based on its territory have a plan to assist victims of accidents and their relatives.

Informing victims' families

EU airlines, as well as non-EU airlines departing from an EU airport, will be obliged to produce a list of all those on board an aircraft "as soon as possible, and at the latest within two hours of the notification of the occurrence of an accident to the aircraft". Their names can only be made public after the families or close relatives of the passengers have been informed by the authorities and only if they do not object. Furthermore, a list of any dangerous goods on board the aircraft will have to be released by the airline immediately after the accident.

Airlines will also be required to provide passengers with the means to indicate a contact person in case of an accident. "This information may be used by the airlines only in the event of an accident and shall not be communicated to third parties or used for commercial purposes" says the new law.

European air safety arrangements

A European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities will be set up to advise the EU institutions, make Europe-wide air safety recommendations, promote best investigation practices and strengthen national safety investigation authorities.

By the end of 2011 the Commission must draft an update of the air safety occurrence reporting directive. The Cologne-based European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will have access to the safety occurrence reports produced by Member States and may be invited to advise in accident investigations.

This new law, which was approved by MEPs today by 604 votes to 11, with 26 abstentions, was guided through Parliament by Christine De Veyrac (EPP, FR). It has already been agreed with the Member States in the Council and will enter into force 20 days after it is published.