I read with astonishment your report that Europe is going to name unsafe foreign airlines (Flight International, 13-19 April). Belgium has banned Air Memphis after a main tyre burst. Is a tyre burst enough to label an airline as unsafe and stop it from flying into European countries? What about the tyre burst that brought down Concorde three years ago? Would Air France be in danger if it happened today? What are the rules defining an unsafe airline?
As for the incident of Luxor Air at Nantes, why did air traffic control leave the aircraft to go off and below assigned altitudes, as is evident in your diagram (Flight International, 13-19 April)?
Hisham Mohsen Cararah
Cairo, Egypt
Source: Flight International
