18/06/2002

Budget airline safety called into question

A new safety report has revealed that pilots working for a number of low-cost airlines have been accused of disobeying instructions from air traffic controllers.

According to the report, some pilots have reacted aggressively to instructions from air traffic controllers that could affect flight times.

However, the main budget airlines operating in the UK, such as Go and Ryanair, have angrily refuted the claims saying safety and security were their main priority.

The complaint was made to the UK Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme, known as CHIRP, and follows safety fears raised recently over air traffic controllers' workloads.

Staff at the UK's main control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire complained that safety could be compromised because they were too busy.

Another study unveiled recently also showed that employees were making more than twice as many official complaints about their workload than this time last year.

(MB)

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