Alexandria, VA, January 30, 2007 — In a historic meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, a group of aviation experts from several African governments, the U.S. government, the World Bank, the African Civil Aviation Commission, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Boeing, Airbus, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Association (IFALPA), World Tourism Organization, and the European Union convened an informal discussion to develop strategies to assist on-going efforts to improve African aviation safety.
Moderated by Flight Safety Foundation President and CEO Bill Voss and Tom Kok, from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation & Freight Transport (DGTL) the Netherlands, the meeting was conceived as a test application of the functionality of the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap in a critical, real-world situation. Several years ago, ICAO tasked a coalition of aviation groups with developing this roadmap to use the capabilities and resources of these groups in a more efficient manner.
The participants agreed on the following:
- Encourage the development of specific steps that assist implementation of the plan of action contained in the May 2006 Libreville Resolution on Aviation Safety in Africa, using the Roadmap to do so.
- Develop between industry and government a public process encouraging broad support for actions to be taken in May at the next African ministerial meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, towards accomplishing the aforementioned goals.
- Deliberations of the group acknowledged the findings of the Libreville Resolution and ICAO’s Directors General of Civil Aviation meeting, and effectiveness of the IATA Operational Safety Audit initiative.
The discussion participants will use several upcoming meetings to present these proposals to those in a position to act on them. The Industry Safety Strategy Group meeting in February will provide an opportunity to confirm that the specific ideas being developed fit into the framework of the Global Aviation Safety Roadmap. There is also a plan to present a paper outlining these proposals in detail at the Addis Ababa meeting and seek ministerial support for achieving the ICAO goal of full aviation safety disclosure by March 2008 and the ministers’ goal of cutting in half the number of aviation accidents in Africa.
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Flight Safety Foundation is an independent, non-profit, international organization engaged in research, auditing, education, advocacy and publishing to improve aviation safety. The Foundation’s mission is to pursue the continuous improvement of global aviation safety and the prevention of accidents. www.flightsafetstg.wpenginepowered.com
Contact: Emily McGee, Director of Communications, 1-703-739-6700, ext. 126; mcgee@webdeva.flightsafety.org
