BALPA Warns Against Airline Safety Cuts

While many people can claim accident at work compensation and get their lives back on track following an injury in the workplace, workplace accidents involving pilots can be considerably more serious. With airline pilots responsible for the lives of upwards of 400 people, it is unsurprising that people expect this industry to reach the highest possible safety standards all of the time/.

However, the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) is concerned that new flight safety rules, which the EU Transport Committee has already rejected, will be forced through by the European Commission. It argued that these rules will compromise pilot safety – not only could this lead to accident at work compensation claims, but it could also cause countless deaths.

The proposed rules could see pilots landing planes after 22 hours without sleep, something around 90% of the British public said they would be concerned about, and that scientific research has shown is dangerous.

Sleepiness, fatigue and pilot accident at work claims

Research from BALPA has shown that 56% of pilots admit to having fallen asleep at the cockpit, with one-third of these respondents saying they have also woken up to discover the co-pilot is also asleep. Tiredness is a common complaint among pilots, with severe tiredness putting pilots and passengers at unnecessary risk.

One of the pilot testimonials provided to the UK Aviation Minister and the Civil Aviation Authority as part of BALPA’s attempt to oppose these new safety rules revealed a pilot believes they have struggled to stay awake while flying a plane on at least five separate occasions.

The testimonial detailed how the pilot was having 40 minutes of ‘controlled rest’ while on a night flight across the Atlantic, when a warning sound awoke them, waking up the snoozing Captain as well who had apparently fallen asleep at the same time.

Will the new pilot safety rules get through?

Personal injury solicitors have been paying close attention to the proposed flight safety rules as they make their way through the European Parliament. The European Parliament’s Transport Committee voted 21-013 against the proposals, but the European Parliament is still pushing ahead with the move and is asking for the entire Parliament to approve the rejection in a vote on Wednesday October 9th. If less than half of the entire parliament does not reject the new rules (including those not present for the vote), they will automatically be enforced.

Therefore, BALPA has urged the Secretary of State for Transport, the UK’s Members of European Parliament and the rest of the Government to reject the European Commission’s proposals and force them back to the drawing board. Pilots should be able to avoid making accident at work compensation claims and should not be forced to fly while exceptionally fatigued, and airline customers should have the right to expect the highest possible standards of safety for every journey.

Personal injury solicitors are concerned that, if the proposals go through, the first the British public hears of them will be following a plane crash that leads to a massive loss of life.

Robert has spent years looking into hospital negligence compensation cases and other forms of mistreatment and poor service in the healthcare setting for a team of at work accident compensaion solicitors. When he’s not working, he likes playing with his pet rats and listening to hip hop. He’s also a keen fan of Rugby League.