Malta planning Bureau of Air Accident Investigation

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The Maltese government in process of ratifying the Montreal protocol to the Tokyo convention to be better equipped to battle incidents from unruly passengers.

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The government is working to establish a Bureau of Air Accident Investigation in its aviation jurisdiction, tourism minister Edward Zammit Lewis told a conference of the European Association of Aviation Psychology.

The EAAP addresses critical issues involving human factors and safety management, including accident prevention and investigation, with an emphasis on practical techniques for application in the operational environment. 

“I believe that air safety investigation outcomes must have a positive impact on accident prevention programmes, equipment design, operating procedures, training, flight standards, safety management systems and regulation.  Indeed, we are working hard to establish a solid Bureau of Air Accident Investigation in our jurisdiction,” Zammit Lewis said.

“In the past year we embarked on a programme, with aviation-oriented policy makers, to increase staffing levels within our regulator, to ensure that SMS is part of the equation in all we do. The result is a draft Civil Aviation Policy for Malta 2014-2020 with human factors as a highlighted and important topic,” the minister said.

The Maltese government has also established the National Aerospace Centre to focus on research and innovation in the aviation industry, and is in the process of ratifying the Montreal protocol to the Tokyo convention to be better equipped to battle incidents from unruly passengers.

The Tokyo Convention governs offences and other acts that occur on board aircraft inflight. It came in to force in 1969. The Montreal Protocol 2014 makes important changes to the original Tokyo Convention to provide an effective deterrent for unacceptable behaviour on board aircraft.

The Protocol extends the jurisdiction over offence to the destination country of the flight in addition to the country of aircraft registration. This closes a loophole which allowed many serious offences to escape legal action.

The agreed changes give greater clarity to the definition of unruly behaviour, such as including the threat of or actual physical assault, or refusal to follow safety-related instructions. There are also new provisions to deal with the recovery of significant costs arising from unruly behaviour.

Malta’s aircraft register has more than doubled in the last four years, and in August the Malta International Airport welcomed 551,179 passengers, an all-time record.

2014 is the centenary anniversary of worldwide commercial flying, and 40 years since national airline Air Malta took off. Few know that since 1915 Malta has had at least two seaplane ports and five airfields.

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