European pilots have are alarmed by a proposed European Union flight-time limitation law that they believe will make flying more dangerous by ignoring scientific input in favour of airline lobbying.
According to the European Cockpit Association, inadequate human resources and expertise at EASA have led the agency to draft a notice of proposed amendment (NPA) for flight time limitations (FTLs) that does not adhere fully to its terms of reference, opting instead for shortcuts based on "expert" opinions from the airlines.
EASA's mandate was to draw up new FTLs based on scientific research results but, the association alleges, the NPA text indicates that the agency has rejected the input from the EASA-commissioned Moebus report and has taken no account of the US Federal Aviation Administration's chronologically parallel science-based proposals for FTL regulatory reform across the Atlantic.
Instead, says the ECA, it has based much of its proposal on a French study which has as yet been neither peer-reviewed nor published in English, the working language of the FTL working group.
The NPA is to be published on 20 December,
Source: Flight International
