Pilots issue safety warning

Pilots' safety warning over flying hours

• The number of hours pilots are required to fly is risking passenger safety, according to claims.
• British pilots are joining flight crews from other countries in warning that the number of hours they are required to fly are putting passenger safety at risk.
• Pilots from 36 countries will protest outside the European Parliament in Brussels, claiming there is scientific evidence to prove that the EU's pilot flight time rules are "flawed."
• Jim McAuslan, who is General Secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has written to Transport Secretary Lord Adonis warning that UK standards are threatened by EU laws.
• Pilots across Europe protested three years ago that plans by the European Parliament to standardise pilot flying hours were potentially unsafe and could result in more pilot fatigue.
• Mr McAuslan said: "The European Parliament responded by instructing the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to send the rules to a team of safety experts.
• At the beginning of this year the scientists, some of the most noted fatigue experts in the world, presented their report which concluded that the EU rules were indeed unsafe. But to its shame EASA has ignored this.
• Balpa claims that pressure on pilots was growing as competition between airlines became "brutal."
• The group also says that new EU rules, due to come into effect in 2012, will see the end of an individual country's ability to set their own higher standards, as currently happens in the UK.
• A Department for Transport spokesman said: "The safety of passengers and crew is our top priority and we will not allow this to be compromised."

By www.MICHAELJACKSON50.com