Page 5 - InterPilot 2019 Issue 1

PAGE 5

Member Associations. With IFALPA’s strategic plan as the guide, our Federation constantly ex-
plores and creates new means of helping our members maintain this essential state of pre-
paredness on their flights, in their regions, and for our profession.

For example, IFALPA’s readiness with relationships, resources, and expertise drawn from our
Member Associations helped contribute to a recent British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA)
legal victory that protects the use of cockpit image recorder files solely for the purpose of ac-
cident investigation. In the ruling on a suit brought by BALPA, the United Kingdom High Court
refused to disclose cockpit image recordings to the news media in the wake of a fatal crash of
a private jet piloted by a British Airways pilot. The judge concluded that the public interest in
disclosing the recording did not outweigh the potential adverse effect on future accident in-
vestigations.

Thanks to IFALPA’s experience in aviation law and virtually every other aspect of aviation, we
recognize the importance of not just looking back to learn from the past, but also focusing on
the future when it comes to ensuring we’re fully prepared for threats and opportunities sur-
rounding the safety and security of the skies and our profession.

This is the reason that IFALPA is working to help our members with information, training, and
tools on issues ranging from flight deck door security and unsupervised passengers walking
between the aircraft and terminal to implementing a new global reporting format methodology
on runway surface conditions and supporting the update of the Global Aviation Safety Plan to
2022.

Similarly, IFALPA’s Professional and Government Affairs Committee is expanding its portfolio to
assist Member Associations in building relationships with influencers when there isn’t a crisis,
so that we have these connections when we need them in the future.
As you’ll read in this issue of Interpilot, it’s almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of
each IFALPA Member Association placing a priority on developing an emergency and incident
response plan as part of establishing the highest possible level of preparedness before an event
occurs.

While effective emergency and incident response is critical, so is readiness to respond to other
types of safety, security, and pilot assistance events as well as industrial issues. We witnessed
this with the labor injustices that were suffered by the pilots of Ryanair, an Irish airline with more
than 85 bases across Europe. While Ryanair management bargained separately with each coun-
try’s pilots as a group or individually, their objective was always to achieve the lowest possible
standards for Ryanair workers. Once again, IFALPA Member Associations came together, and
we’ve seen progress.

Without every IFALPA Member Association and volunteer, none of our Federation’s success
in maintaining readiness would be possible. For IFALPA Member Associations and their pilots,
preparedness is learned firsthand and comes second nature.

Capt. Ron Abel
President