As President of ECA for more than the last 5 years, I have lead an organisation which is focussed on aviation safety – indeed every time we write our name, we add “Piloting Safety”. As the only voice of professional pilots at European level, we also represent their views on all other issues which affect them – but the lion’s share of the work and effort is aimed at improving aviation safety. This month’s ‘Cockpit News’ is no exception:
· Helicopter crews have for too long experienced a much higher risk of accidents than their fixed wing counterparts. Sometimes they are willing to accept a challenging environment, for example in search and rescue operations to save peoples’ lives. But unavoidable risks aside, ECA helicopter pilot representatives are not willing to accept risks associated with inadequate or non-existent safety regulation. We call upon EASA and the Commission to act.
· The rules for determining which EU Member State collects the social security charges for each worker have been changed, and guidelines published for flight crew, without consulting the industry social partners. The new rules will not be straightforward for either the social security departments or employers to implement and may leave open loopholes for abuse. ECA is calling on the Commission to properly consult in order to improve the rules.
I think the water pump symbolizes that hard work that can bring abundance. You cannot have water without giving enough effort to pump it. The water symbolizes the result of labor. The light shines on it because it is a solution the water pump is a solution to their problem.
