While aviation remains an extremely safe means of transport, it is important that the industry continues to look at ways of further improving safety standards.
Aviation safety remains an ongoing key priority for ERA, said Montserrat Barriga, ERA’s Director General on Monday, following her meeting with Luc Tytgat, Director of the Strategy and Safety Management Directorate, EASA, and Jesper Rasmussen, EASA’s Flight Standards Director.
The meeting, which was also attended by ERA’s (European Regions Airline Association) Policy and Technical Managers Chris Mason and Russell Dudley, is part of ERA’s ongoing work with EASA, making a valuable contribution to aviation safety.
The meeting covered several important safety issues including peer support programmes and pilot mental health, lasers, SAFA inspection programme and ERA’s top five safety concerns which are airborne conflict, loss of control, fire and smoke, cyber security and conflict zones. In addition, challenges for ERA’s airline members surrounding Brexit and technical operations matters such as Opinion 06-2017 – Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, ORO.FC, examiner differences, research on pilots over the age of 60 and the revision of the SPI Regulation final report were addressed.
While aviation remains an extremely safe means of transport, it is important that the industry continues to look at ways of further improving safety standards. Montserrat Barriga, ERA’s Director General, said: “While the aviation industry’s safety record is exceptional, it is constantly working to improve its standards. We are working with EASA to preserve the highest level of safety in European airspace, addressing current and future challenges and delivering real results.”
Luc Tytgat, Director of the Strategy and Safety Management Directorate at EASA commented: “ERA is a key partner for EASA to ensure appropriate link between ERA members and the Agency; Operational experiences acquired by the regional airlines are essential to understand the specific constraints of this sector and to take into consideration when defining the EASA safety standards.”
In addition to the association’s ongoing work with aviation safety entities, ERA runs an air safety group for its members which meets regularly to address key safety concerns. The objective of the group is to improve the safety of ERA members’ operations and to promote a positive and proactive culture for aviation safety. ERA also runs an annual Safety Forum with the Flight Safety Foundation and Eurocontrol and this year’s event will be held on 29–30 May at the Eurocontrol Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and will focus on safety behaviours.
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