Companies reject blacklist pilots after Flydubai incident

Athe main European airlines today recognized the risks associated with the activity and defended a balance in the medical and professional evaluation of pilots, but rejected the creation of a blacklist after the case involving the Flydubai company.

“ I think we must recognise the fact that there is no absolute security in this industry. Although there are people – pilots around the world – who every day guarantee flight safety and save lives, but there are also risks,” Lufthansa, Carsten Spohr, Executive President, said at a press conference in Brussels of the five largest European airlines, integrated into the Airlines for Europe (A4E) association.

Carsten Spohr said he spoke on behalf of a group of airlines “that was affected by a case that is not similar, but that has some parallelisms and that occurred 11 years ago”, in an allusion to the accident of Germanwings, subsidiary of Lufthansa, when in 2015 a copilot deliberately crashed a plane in the French Alps, causing the deaths of the 150 people on board.

Since then, “the pilots began medical examinations that went beyond physical issues, such as vision and hearing, also covering issues related to mental health,” said Carsten Spohr.

Still, he pointed out that “this is a very difficult area for regulators, who have to find the right balance”.

As regards the possibility of taking specific measures for pilots, including the creation of a blacklist, Ryanair’s executive president Michael O’Leary expressed himself against a general solution.

“I would be very concerned about the creation of some kind of general blacklist of pilots. It would depend a lot on why, but I think there should be some kind of control,” he said.

According to Michael O’Leary, before an airline hires a pilot, it makes “reference checks and its professional history, among other checks”, which result in a “very thorough analysis”.

“ No system is perfect, but I would personally be very reluctant to have a system that would determine that a pilot, a member of the cabin crew or, who knows, the executive president of an airline was on a blacklist and therefore could not be hired. I think that would be going too far and I think we would be crossing the boundaries ", it did.

The statements were made at a press conference in Brussels on the competitiveness of European airlines at a time when the sector also faces pressure on costs, fuel and airport capacity.

At the end of September, Flydubai Flight FZ1073, which made the link between Dubai and Tel Aviv with more than 170 people on board, suffered an incident in the cockpit when the copilot attacked the commander and tried to take control of the aircraft.

The case raised questions about the mechanisms of pilot selection and monitoring, after information had emerged that the copilot would have been prevented from flying in Oman due to concerns related to extremism.

The circumstances in which he was subsequently hired by Flydubai are being investigated.