The setting up of a new global blacklist of planes unfit to fly will be discussed this week at a summit meeting between the European transport commissioner and the president of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Advocates of a global blacklist believe it would prevent carriers in the developing world from using their best aircraft to enter better regulated airspace and then moving passengers to older, less reliable aircraft, as is alleged to have occurred after the Yemenia flight from Marseille to Sana'a. The passengers were transferred on to the plane that crashed on the final leg from Sana'a to Grand Comoros.
European and US aviation authorities had not been sufficiently concerned about the safety practises of airlines operating outside European or American air space. In Africa, there is one accident for about every 250,000 flights, five times the global average.
At present, the EU runs its own blacklist, as does the US. The EU list includes scores of airlines, and outlaws entire countries such as Indonesia and several African nations, whose carriers are prohibited from entering European skies.
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