Pilot protest

The protests, organized by the Brussels-based European Cockpit Association (ECA), are aimed at putting pressure on the EU to implement stricter limits on working hours in order to avoid pilot fatigue, which research has shown is a factor in up to 20 percent of fatal air accidents.

On Monday, pilots and airline crew demonstrated outside the EU head office in Brussels, as well as at 22 European airports, where they handed out fake boarding passes to passersby printed with the kind of health warnings typically found on packs of cigarettes.

An ECA leaflet distributed in Brussels said that current EU regulations allow air crew to fly for up to 15 hours nonstop. But "science says that over 13 hours, the risk of accidents is 5.5 (times) higher," the leaflet read.

The leaflet was referring to a report mandated by the EU in September 2008, which recommended that airline crew not operate for more than 13 hours during the day and 10 hours at night.

ECA says EU dragging its heels

The ECA, which represents around 38,000 pilots and flight engineers across the continent, says the EU has been sitting on the evidence in the report for a year without taking action to amend working hours. It contends that lives are at risk because of the long shifts currently permitted under EU regulations. At Monday's rally, an ECA official referred to a recent air crash in Buffalo, New York, where fatigue was in part blamed for the death of 50 people.

"We shouldn't have to wait until the same happens in Europe," ECA chief Martin Chalk told reporters in Brussels. He chided the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for sitting on the evidence provided in the report.

"What we're saying today is that they need to listen to the safety review," Chalk said.

"It was conducted by the best scientists in this field in Europe. It was commissioned by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and therefore it should not be ignored when writing the rules."

EASA has said it is studying the issue. At present, there are two sets of minimum safety standards for avoiding pilot fatigue: a minimum level set by the EU, and a level set by individual countries that can be better than that minimum level. However, new rules are due to come into effect in 2012, ending a member state's ability to set its own higher standards.

dc/dpa/AP
Editor: Nancy Isenson