Brussels, 24/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 24 September, the European Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Germany, criticising the lack of financial resources and personnel of the Luftfahrtbundesamt (LBA), the German federal civil aviation office responsible for examining the technical safety of the equipment and clearing pilots to fly.
The case is not a new one. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) sounded the alarm regarding the chronic lack of control staff in 2014, the German weekly newspaper Spiegel reported in April of this year. Additionally, the LBA is reported not to keep any data on the pilots' medical reports, by virtue of the protection of patients' private data. The German weekly reports that in November 2014, the EU had already written to Germany insisting that the German office tighten up its health certification procedures.
Reports state that Germany has been called upon by the Commission to comply with three regulations: regulation (748/2012) on initial airworthiness and environmental certification for aircraft, regulation (1321/2014) on maintaining airworthiness and regulation (1178/2011) laying down technical requirements and administrative procedures applicable to pilots.
Berlin now has two months to submit its observations.
The question of medical checks of pilots has been amply debated since the crash of the Germanwings aircraft in March (see EUROPE 11281). In mid July, EASA submitted a report to the Commission listing six recommendations, notably to tighten up medical checks (see EUROPE 11362), which a number of MEPs wished to make binding (see EUROPE 11347).
However, and contrary to certain media reports, this letter of formal notice had no direct link to the tragedy, according to a European source, as the initial European actions predated it. Nor does this procedure have anything to do with the reasoned opinion sent by the Commission in July of last year on procedures for granting pilots' licences (see EUROPE 11362).
When contacted by EUROPE, the Commission declined to comment. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)