16/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - In view of the Trialogue of 20 January at the EP, the committee on the security of aircraft from third countries (EUROPE yesterday p 9), German Social Democrat Ulrich Stockman underlined that a long time before the air disaster of Charm el-sheik, experts were aware of the safety problems of aircraft from African, Asian and Latin American countries. He also said that that these countries had a level of accidents that was double the world average. In a press statement Stockmann explained that airlines from Eastern European countries had "fifty times more accidents" than European companies. He noted that western and Australian airlines were the safest.