9. Egypt Air
75 ramp inspections carried out over the last 18 months in Austria, Germany, France, Italy,
the Netherlands and Spain have identified a number of safety deficiencies.
Following contacts between the Commission and the Egyptian civil aviation authorities,including hearings with the airline at the air safety committee, a corrective action plan has now been implemented by Egypt Air.
Member States will ensure that regular ramp inspections of Egypt Air aircrafts take place and the situation will be reviewed by the air safety committee in November 2009.
Egypt Air
(66) There is evidence of numerous safety deficiencies on the
part of Egypt Air certified in Egypt. These deficiencies
have been identified in 75 inspections carried out since
January 2008 mainly by Austria, France, Germany, Italy,
Netherlands, and Spain as well as other ECAC states
during ramp inspections performed under the SAFA
programme. The repetition of these findings (a total of
240 findings out of which 91 category 2 and 69
category 3) raises concerns about systemic safety defi*
ciencies.
(67) The Commission, having regard to the SAFA reports,
entered on 25 May 2009 into a formal consultation
with the competent authorities of Egypt (ECAA),
expressing serious concerns about the safety of the oper*
ations of this carrier and urging the carrier and its
competent authorities pursuant to Article 7 of Regulation
(EC) No 2111/2005 to take measures to satisfactorily
resolve the detected safety deficiencies.
(68) The carrier submitted voluminous documentation on 10,
16, 17, 19 and 26 June 2009. The submitted documents
indicated remedial actions taken or envisaged to be taken
after the ramp inspections as well as root cause analysis,
providing for long term solutions. The carrier requested
to make an oral presentation to the Air Safety
Committee and did so on 30 June 2009.
(69) In view of the persistence of serious findings in the areas
of continuing airworthiness, maintenance, operations, as
well as the safety of cargo on board, the Commission
requests the competent authorities of Egypt to send
monthly reports on verification of the implementation
of the corrective action plan along with any other
reports of audits that these authorities will carry out
on Egypt Air. The Commission should also receive a
report of the final audit to be carried of the out by the
competent authorities of Egypt at the end of this period,
the results of which will be communicated to the
Commission along with the recommendations of this
authority.
(70) The carrier and competent authorities of Egypt accepted
a visit from EC experts to verify the implementation of
the corrective action plan. The Commission urged the
carrier to provide without delay for the sustainable
resolution of the various findings, failing which appro*
priate measures will have to be taken. On this basis, at
this stage, is is assessed that the carrier should not be
included in Annex A.
(71) The Member States shall ensure that the number of
inspections of Egypt Air will be intensified in order to
provide the basis for a reassessment of this case during
the next Air Safety Committee meeting which is to take
place in November 2009.