By Sheila Barter
BBC News Online |
Five airlines which have such poor safety records they have been banned in at least one country are having their identities kept secret in an information black hole.
 Passengers boarding the Flash plane did not know Swiss record |
Flash Airlines, whose plane crashed in Egypt on Saturday, was only one of six airlines whose safety standards were considered so poor they were banned or restricted in a European country in 2002. But 133 French passengers boarded the doomed jet unaware that it had failed a Swiss safety test and remained banned from Swiss airspace.
And future passengers who want to know the names of the five other banned airlines face a seemingly impossible task, even though these names are not officially secret.
The information is held on a vast database in France and the Netherlands. National governments know, but passengers and - crucially - even tour operators can find out only if a government decides to reveal the information.
"The public has no way of knowing which airlines they are," says David Learmount, of Flight International Magazine. "Yes they should know, but who should tell them?"
The information is not classified as confidential - but it is not obtainable, it seems.
No names
The UK's Department of Transport confirmed to BBC News Online that in 2002 - the last year for which figures are available - the Swiss had imposed four bans or restrictions, and the Belgians and Dutch one each.
 | HAVE YOUR SAY  It's inconceivable that in this day and age passengers don't have access to that information  Anthony Taylor, Manchester, UK |
But the names of the firms were not being revealed in the UK - even though the government could not immediately confirm whether any of the five airlines carried UK passengers.
"Information is shared between member states of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), but it is for the state taking the action to put out any information," a Department of Transport spokeswoman said. "It's a combination of protocol and legal restrictions relevant to the problem in that particular country."
Switzerland, for example, has strict business confidentiality rules. A total of 23 aircraft are currently banned from flying over Switzerland, the Swiss civil aviation authority told BBC News Online but the names, and even the number of companies, is confidential.
| It's not a case of us not wanting to disclose the information, but we have to have regard for certain criteria |
"I can understand passengers' concerns - we have the same demands here," said spokeswoman Celestine Perissiniotto. "But this information will stay confidential."
Flash has continued to insist that its planes were safe and that the faults found in Switzerland were not serious.
The testing system - known as Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft (SAFA) - is administered by the Dutch-based Joint Aviation Authorities on behalf of the ECAC.
Testing procedures
Thousands of tests are carried out on hundreds of airlines every year. Some find no faults or only minor ones.
A handful each year, however, turn up such serious problems that the entire airline has its permission to fly revoked or limited.
 Flowers mark the Red Sea crash site |
But at this point the information falls into the void. ECAC passes the information to its 41 member governments, insisting it is up to them to decide whether to make the information public. But in practice, disclosure has never happened. Even Flash's Swiss ban was revealed only after the plane had crashed.
"It's not a case of us not wanting to disclose the information," said Jude Mariadassou, deputy executive secretary at ECAC.
"But we have to have regard for certain criteria - for example making sure the information is understood and not misunderstood, to maintain equal treatment amongst everyone.
"There are also commercial aspects, and because different states have different legal systems we need a certain degree of clarity."
ECAC and the airline body International Air Transport Association (IATA) also warn that too much disclosure could stop airlines co-operating in testing programmes. IATA, for example, is granted access to many flight data recorders, using the information to help pilots learn from incidents or mistakes.
"It is very important that the whole matter remains confidential, " says IATA spokesman William Gaillard, "or we will never get hold of these recordings - they will be erased. It is very important to learn from mistakes."
But campaigners argue that the public has the right to know about airline safety records - especially when one country has such major concerns that it has banned an airline altogether.
Euro campaign
"I have long campaigned for greater openness and transparency in making public all relevant information about airlines, so that passengers can make an informed choice when deciding on their means of travel," says Belgian MEP Nelly Maes, the European Parliament's rapporteur on foreign aircraft safety.
"This of course includes an airline's safety record."
| Consumers would want to know the name of the hotel - it's elementary. So why not have the same information about the airline? It's just as important |
Ms Maes, pressing for the EU to publish an annual report on airlines' records, accuses the European Commission and Council of dragging their feet on the issue, by citing the same concerns about commercial sensitivity, "Frankly their position loses credibility by the day," she says.
IATA says all tour operators should demand copies of charter firms' independent safety audits, and passengers should choose tour operators which name the charter firms in their brochures - to avoid using firms which simply grab the cheapest charter firm available a few days before the flight is due.
"It's about the right of consumers to know," says IATA's William Gaillard. "Consumers would want to know the name of the hotel and certain information about it - it's elementary.
"So why not have the same information about the airline? It's just as important."
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