2 September 1998; Swissair MD11; near Halifax, Canada: The aircraft was on a nonstop flight from New York's JFK airport to Geneva. The aircraft crashed at night in the Atlantic Ocean close to shore about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Halifax, Nova Scotia. All 15 crew members and 214 passengers were killed.


10 January 2000; Crossair Saab 340; Zurich, Switzerland:
The aircraft had just departed on a flight to Dresden, Germany when it crashed just north of the runway. The three crew members and seven passengers were all killed.
Fatal Saab 340 Events


24 November 2001; Crossair Avro RJ100; near Zurich, Switzerland: The aircraft was on a flight from Berlin, Germany to Zurich, Switzerland when it crashed into a wooded area about two miles (3.2 km) from the runway during a night approach to Zurich's airport. Three of the five crew members and 21 of the 28 passengers were killed.
Fatal BAe 146/Avro RJ100 Events

http://tinyurl.com/cj28h

AND:

A tragic collision in July '02 caused by lapses in the Swiss ATC system:

https://forums.swissair111.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/322103945/m/403105868

And they're blacklisting airlines? That is a tiny country and an incredible amount of 'accident's. The list is due out tomorrow.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BF,

Thursday 01.09.2005, CET 15:32



Switzerland blacklists two airlines

swissinfo September 1, 2005 11:22 AM




Egyptian carrier Flash Airlines is on the blacklist
Following France and Belgium earlier this week, Switzerland has published its blacklist of airlines banned from Swiss airports.

Flash Airlines from Egypt and the Armenian Air Van Airlines are the two companies named. The authorities said the list would be constantly updated.


The Federal Civil Aviation Office (FCAO) banned the airlines on the grounds of systematic security deficiencies.

A Lausanne-based consumers' group welcomed the publication of the blacklist but said more needed to be done on the level of the international coordination.

The group said the banning of the airlines was the first step in the right direction and called for passengers to have the right to know in advance what airline would be carrying them.

Switzerland's blacklist does not include airlines banned in other countries that have no regular routes to and from Switzerland. But the FCAO said it would not allow airlines restricted in other countries to reroute flights to Switzerland.

For carriers banned in other countries but still permitted to fly to Switzerland, the authorities said they would undertake targeted inspections.

Inspectors from the FCAO carry out random checks at Swiss airports to ensure that foreign airlines comply with safety standards.

These checks follow the pan-European Safety and Assessment for Foreign Aircraft or SAFA programme.

Raymond Cron, director of the FCAO, told reporters that Switzerland is going to push for the creation of a European blacklist of banned airline companies. This should be published in 2006, Cron said.

Problem solved?

However, blacklists don't really solve the problem of civil aviation safety, because they do not force airlines to comply with international standards, according to Geneva-based industry expert Pierre Condom.

"There are countries where compliance with these standards is not controlled," Condom said. The director of the aviation magazine Interavia estimates that there are up to 100 unsafe civil airlines around the world.

The crash of a Flash Airlines plane at the beginning of 2004 in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm al-Sheikh led to a controversy about the publication of blacklists.

It emerged after the accident, which killed 148 people, that the aircraft had been banned in Switzerland because of security deficiencies.

swissinfo with agencies

Key Facts

- The two airlines banned from Switzerland are Flash Airlines (Egypt) and Air Van Airlines (Armenia)
- The French blacklist contains five companies:
- Air Koryo (North Korea)
- Air Saint-Thomas (US)
- International Air Service (Liberia)
- Lineas AER of Mozambique (LAM)
- Phuket Airlines (Thailand).
- There are nine companies on the Belgian list:
- Africa Lines (Central African Republic)
- Air Memphis (Egypt)
- Air Van Airlines (Armenia)
- Central Air Express (Democratic Republic of Congo)
- ICTTPW (Libya)
- International Air Tours Limited (Nigeria)
- Johnsons Air Limited (Ghana)
- Silverback Cargo Freighters (Rwanda)
- South Airlines (Ukraine).


Related Sites

- International Civil Aviation Organization
- Safety Assessment of Foreign Aircraft Programme
- Federal Office for Civil Aviation



http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=11...4&cKey=1125575566000

To read the story of the International Aviation Safety Association and its work over the seven years since Swissair 111's 02 Sep 98 crash, go to:

http://www.iasa.com.au or http://www.iasa-intl.com

BUELACH, Switzerland (AP) -- Four employees of a Swiss air traffic control company were convicted of negligent homicide on Tuesday over the 2002 mid-air collision of a passenger plane and cargo jet that killed 71 people -- most of them vacationing Russian schoolchildren.


Only one Skyguide air traffic controller was on duty at the time of the collision over German airspace. That man, Peter Nielsen, was stabbed to death in 2004 by a Russian whose wife and children were killed.

Some of the defendants, who were not identified during the trial because of Swiss privacy laws, blamed Nielsen for not following proper procedures, but prosecutors cited a culture of negligence and lack of risk awareness at Skyguide, maintaining the collision was not solely Nielsen's fault.

Three of those convicted -- all middle managers -- received one-year suspended prison sentences.

The fourth was ordered to pay a $11,200 fine for his role in the collision of a Bashkirian Airlines plane and a DHL cargo jet near the south German town of Ueberlingen on July 1, 2002, which killed the two cargo pilots and everyone on the passenger plane.

All four will have to pay court costs of $20,700.


Air controller suspect in clinic
Four other Skyguide officials were acquitted of wrongdoing.

Prosecutors had requested suspended prison sentences ranging from six to 15 months for all defendants.

Vitaly Kaloyev, the Russian who killed Nielsen, is currently serving a prison sentence which was reduced to five years and four months on appeal.

Before his death, Nielsen told investigators that he had worked under stressful conditions on the night of the crash, because a colleague took a break and maintenance on the air traffic control system had affected monitoring and communications.

Prosecutors say neighboring control centers were not informed that the main telephone connection to Skyguide was out of order that night. German officials tried to warn Nielsen that the planes were on a collision course in airspace under Skyguide's jurisdiction, but could not reach him.

By the time Nielsen realized the problem, he gave the planes only 44 seconds' warning that they were getting too close to each other. He also mistakenly told the Russian plane to descend -- sending it straight into the cargo jet.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09/04/swiss.air.ap...ext?iref=werecommend