NEWS from BALPA

British Airline Pilots’ Association

 

Wednesday 19 January 2005

 

PILOTS WELCOME NEW AIRBUS BUT WARN ON SAFETY ISSUES

 

The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) today welcomed the roll-out of the new A380 airliner but said pilots are worried about three things.

 

‘First we’re worried about pilots being alert enough to fly for 20 or more hours,’ said Captain Mervyn Granshaw, Chairman of BALPA. ‘Flights will have to be planned in alignment with a pilot’s bodyclock and sufficient rest, to enable them to undertake such long flights whilst still being able to carry out routine complex tasks as well as coping with emergencies. This has to be a priority.’

 

He said that BALPA has been working with scientists and Singapore Airlines, which will be the first airline to fly the new aircraft.  ‘For flights up to 20 hours,’ he said, ‘there needs to be a flight crew of at least four pilots and trials have shown that although the pilots will get enough sleep to remain within safe operating limits, they do not get the quality of sleep that is considered to be recuperative. Pilots’ work patterns will therefore have to be built very carefully.

 

‘For duties over 20 hours the number of crew and the work and rest patterns they will need require further investigation. We are concerned that apparently there is some resistence to this further investigation and pilots worldwide will not allow safety to be put at risk like that.’

 

The second concern was the configuration of airfields. Captain Granshaw said: ‘At Heathrow £450 million in being spent remodelling taxiways and gates so that the airport is ready for the new aircraft and safety is not impaired. But we have heard that some airports are going to ask for exemptions and will try to get by without making all the changes necessary. We will not allow these new aircraft to be brought into service on this kind of a wing and a prayer.’

 

The third concern is that the fledging European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is now responsible for certificating new aircraft for airworthiness in all 28 countries of the EU and its affiliates, does not yet have among its staff sufficient technical expertise or regulatory control to ensure that safety does not become subordinated to the commercial demands of strong industry players and so not insist upon the detailed design changes that might properly be required.

 

 

Captain Granshaw said: ‘For the first time ever one legally founded organisation will Type Certificate aircraft for a number of countries. Till now each nation state has given its own certificate.

 

‘We want assurances from EASA that they will secure the proper level of technical expertise and maintain a strong resolve to ensure safety remains paramount.

 

‘To ensure that this happens it is important that the EU deems the Agency to be legally accountable should any accident occur. In the UK our Civil Aviation Authority has long accepted that same accountability and we want the European body to be held to account in the same way.’

 

/Ends