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.

FMI: www.eurocontrol.int