Regulatory Abuse by Airlines Threatens Aviation Safety

Investigations by AEI affiliates revealed that airlines are deliberately abusing aviation regulations in order to reduce costs. Recently AEI raised the issue of pilots not reporting aircraft defects as they occurred, but rather when convenient for the airline. These concerns were confirmed by both EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) and SAFA (Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft programme), yet despite this, affiliates continue to observe malpractice. This arrogant behaviour highlights both a total disregard for passenger safety and a belief by the operator that such dangerous behaviour generally carries no risk of any consequence.

With recent safety related events in the United States leading to an admission by the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) that its oversight of airlines had not been to the required standard, AEI must, due to similar European incidents, pose the question whether EASA, the European Agency tasked with implementing the highest common standards, is actually "fit for purpose".


This is just one of the serious issues on the agenda when engineers from all over the world meet in Varna, Bulgaria, from the 23rd until the 26th September for Aircraft Engineers International's 37th Annual Congress.

AEI further believes that national aviation regulators must start to act instead of maintaining their current stand-off attitude. This would require an immediate halt to the current regulatory trend of appeasing operator’s demands for lighter regulation. National airworthiness authorities if genuine about safety being paramount must move away from paper auditing and become more hands on”.