I have no problem with other nationalities or registrations, per se. I do have grave concerns about certain regulators not performing satisfactory oversight of their operators; especially when they are operating in a third party country some distance from home. Should the local authority have more involvement and oversight with these style of operations ? I think they should.
Many aviation authorities require financial stabilty and enough rescources to maintain a safe operation. ( Pilots, engineers, spares, training capacity etc etc). If you look at this style of operator, just think how many have been and gone. Take a look at some of the operators 'based' in the UK right now, do you think all of them would pass a full UK CAA AOC audit ?
Monarch choose to use an operator, however due to this incident they have now decided to stop using them. Should they have picked up shortcomings in this operation before; maybe. I bet you Monarch will be looking much much closer at sub charter operations from now on don't you?
I don't think any corporate body (Airline OR tour operator) should be allowed to abdicate their responsibilites when it comes to sub chartering.
Just because an operation is based within the EASA region is not a good enough answer, it is NOT a level playing field.
Unless something changes in regulation and oversight, this senario will just be repeated and sadly the ending maybe far more serious. That's just my opinion.
Last edited by trackfpa320; 30th Sep 2012 at 16:58.