As a pilot I know how important it is to stay focused and avoid any unnecessary distractions and stress. Everyday worries come and go but in aviation those worries can have a detrimental impact on safety. 

This is why, when I heard about the recent raids of homes of Ryanair pilots by tax authorities in Europe, I kept thinking how these worries and the uncertainty surrounding the employment status of pilots could impact their daily work and the safety of operations. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one and soon after the raids, the Ryanair Pilot Group (RPG) started a petition calling on IAA (Irish Aviation Authority) and EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) to conduct an independent assessment of the employment model and how this might influence safety. 

What followed was an astonishing Memo by Ryanair Chief Pilot, stating that any Ryanair pilot who signs this safety petition “will be guilty of gross misconduct and will be liable for dismissal”. Some weeks later Michael O’Leary reconfirmed the message in a live broadcast on Bloomberg TV. 

Such statements set an important precedent that could undermine any company’s incident reporting system across its network and may ultimately jeopardize safety. Just Culture key principles, such as guaranteeing a blame free environment when reporting safety mistakes, are the pillars of any genuine safety culture and should be the cornerstone of any confidential reporting system established by the regulatory aviation authorities. In circumstances when trust cannot be established between a pilot and a regulator or an airline, official alternative channels of reporting should be available. For this reason ECA has contacted EASA and the European Commission to express its concerns and to ask them to explore the possibility of creating such an alternative scheme at European level.

All our work is dedicated to keeping current safety levels and making aviation even safer in the future. We’ll make sure we keep on “Piloting Safety”.
 

by Nico Voorbach