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3. How the Authorities control worldwide airlines?
On December 7th 1944, 52 countries have endorsed the Chicago
convention, and agreed to set up and applied a technical regulation based
on the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) directives. The Chicago convention applied
since April 4th 1947. All the
organisations implied in the aviation safety are concerned: airlines,
maintenance
workshop, training school, crews …
Charter and regular airlines are controlled by the Civil
Aviation Authority of the
state where they have set their main base. Therefore,
the National
Authority of an airline is responsible for ensuring that its air
carrier
operators comply
with the minimum safety
oversight standards established by the ICAO. Only the
National Authority of the airline has a
global knowledge of the safety level of its airline, and can decide
whether or
not the airline is allowed to carry passengers. Then, it is the
responsibility
each country to ensure that every foreign airlines have been allowed to
fly
by their National Authority.
4. What technical controls are performed by the European
Authority on foreign
airlines?
In addition to the complete and systematic controls under the
responsibility of the
National Authority of the airline, the European states have set up a
program called SAFA (Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft), which
consists in
performing punctual and unexpected controls. These controls do not
replace the
National Authority continuing
oversight and
surveillance, but ensure that the airlines comply with the
international safety requirements. For example, aircraft documentation,
crew licenses, flight deck and cabin safety systems, general aircraft
aspect, cargo loading are verified. These controls are made in such a
way that the
aircraft is not delayed. Consequently, depending on the timeframe available
during the aircraft stop, these controls can be extensive enough to definitely ensure
that the aircraft is safe, or too short and allow an unsafe airline to be undetected.
Following a control, the airline can be requested to correct a
deviation before the next
take-off. Its National Authority can be warned. In the worst case, in case of a serious
deviation, an
airline can be banned from a country until it has demonstrated
compliance with the
international safety
standards. The purpose of these controls is
to set an additional surveillance
of the foreign
airlines, and that all foreign airlines know that they can be
controlled and sanctioned anythime when they land in Europe. All these controls are carried out
by dedicated teams.
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