US to probe Swiss civil aviation security

The FAA team will be taking a close look at Swiss aviation security Keystone

United States officials arrived in Switzerland on Monday for a week-long investigation of the country’s aviation security procedures.

The visit coincides with a shake-up of the Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA), which has been criticised for failing to arrest a decline in air safety standards.

A delegation from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will undertake a detailed “safety assessment” before submitting a report to the Swiss authorities.

The inspection comes less than a year after the former director of the FOCA, André Auer, was forced to resign following criticism that his office had lost its grip on civil aviation security.

Auer’s successor, 45-year-old Raymond Cron, officially begins work at the end of this week.

Security overhaul

Two months ago the government announced plans to hire an extra 60 aviation specialists to improve safety in Switzerland’s skies after an independent report called for an urgent overhaul of aviation security mechanisms.

When contacted by swissinfo, the Washington-based FAA declined to comment on speculation that this week’s visit was linked to the FOCA restructuring.

Swiss officials described the inspection tour as “routine” and said they were ready to cooperate with the US authorities.

“The Federal Office for Civil Aviation is [in the process of] reorganising itself and the US authorities asked [if they could] review our aviation policy,” said FOCA spokeswoman, Celestine Perissinotto.

“We will use this opportunity to exchange information on the current structure of our respective organisations and on ongoing projects to reorganise safety supervision,” Perissinotto told swissinfo.

Aviation accords

The majority of bilateral aviation accords signed between Switzerland and some 130 countries include provision for reciprocal visits by air safety inspectors.

But according to the FOCA this week’s US fact-finding mission is the first visit of its kind by a foreign delegation in at least five years.

Perissinotto said FAA officials were coming to Switzerland because they wanted to be kept “informed about the current status of safety inspections”.

She also confirmed that in a worst-case scenario the FAA could reject future requests to increase the number of flights from Switzerland to the US if it discovers serious shortcomings in air safety procedures.

“This is a possibility, but let’s wait for the FAA [to report back]. I think it is too soon to speculate about the consequences,” she said.

Safety standards

A report published last year by the Dutch research institute, NLR, found that aviation safety standards in Switzerland had slipped over the last decade.

The study was commissioned after the authorities were criticised in the wake of a spate of accidents, including a 2002 mid-air crash in Swiss-controlled airspace.

The Swiss air traffic control agency, Skyguide, was blamed for failing to prevent the collision of a Russian passenger plane and a cargo jet which claimed the lives of 71 people.

The report concluded that air safety levels were in decline in Switzerland at a time when they were improving elsewhere in Europe.

A recent security review found that inspectors had failed for years to notice that international safety standards were not being upheld at Lugano airport in canton Ticino.

swissinfo, Billi Bierling

In brief

Switzerland’s air safety standards came under fire after a mid-air crash between a Russian passenger plane and a cargo jet in 2002.

On Monday a team from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) arrived in Switzerland to take a close look at Swiss air safety policies.

The inspection is permitted under the terms of a Swiss-US bilateral aviation agreement. The accord also allows Swiss officials to inspect FAA safety procedures.