EUROCONTROL - General Aviation Survey 2007

CrossPoint,

Thanks for answering.

Could I kindly ask you again to back up the basic assumptions you make
about risk flying in Europe (you implicitly state it is higher than
elsewhere), about mid-airs (you implicitly state they are a high risk
compared to others in aviation) and about a causal correlation between
airspace infringement and mid-airs (you say the former is a "major
cause" of the latter)?

I think you are wrong on ALL those points. Can you prove them?

FWIW, the page at Eurocontrol's website about their infringement
initiative doesn't make that last connection at all. They simply see
infringements as a risk per se. They also grade infringements in a
scheme where about 40 percent are deemed a "significant" or higher
risk."Major" and "serious" incidents, however, are still very rare. I
couldn't find the Eurocontrol definitions of these classifications with
a quick search. Nowhere on that page are mid-airs even mentioned, only
"potential risks" and other rathervague descriptions.

To be clear, I think there might indeed be too many infringements.
Although, we're talking about slightly over 4 per day on average in all
of "the busy European skies" - hmm! I also agree they can be a risk.
However, to portrait them as "a major cause" for mid-airs is travesty -
especially in the light of the fact that a much more "major cause" of
mid-airs might at least partly be the group your employer belongs to.
I'm talking about controller error. While most mid-airs are probably
caused by pilot error, airspace infringement has nothing to do with it
- again, feel free to prove me wrong.

So please understand that the whole "infringement initiative" seems a
little dubious. If you say that "the overall survey is developed based
on the requirements that we have", after looking at it, I have to say I
find that easy to believe - in a very ironic way.

After all, what magic "solution" to this "problem" might an ATC
organisation like Eurocontrol possibly come up with? Could it be fewer
controlled and restricted airspace? Well, if you think so, I've got a
bridge to sell you...

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)