European regulators maintain safety-oversight pressure on Egyptian authority

Egyptian safety oversight capabilities are being kept under scrutiny by the European Commission, although it has not moved to blacklist any of the country’s carriers. The Commission states, in a 30 May blacklist update, that it held a technical meeting with Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority representatives in mid-April as part of a review of the regulator’s activities and documentation. While Commission acknowledges that the ECAA is engaged in a “comprehensive” restructuring process, it adds: “It nevertheless appears that the current focus of the ECAA is on addressing mainly visible and obvious deficiencies without sufficiently robust root-cause analysis. “Increased efforts are needed as regards safety oversight of Egyptian air carriers and improved safety culture, as well as proper implementation of corrective and preventive actions.” The authority was informed, during the technical meeting, about particular concerns such as the lack of implementation of a national aviation safety plan, issues with promoting a robust safety culture, and lack of verifiable numbers for active flight-operations inspectors to oversee 16 carriers holding air operator’s certificates. Shortcomings including lack of guidance – both within carriers and the ECAA – on establishing flight-data analysis programme, and an absence of inspector training records, were also brought up.<br/>