Ryanair pilots want investigation into flight safety

An anonymous survey, conducted by the Ryanair Pilot Group (RPG), a trade union for Ryanair pilots, has revealed that a large group wants an investigation to be conducted into flight safety at the Irish airline.

Anonymous survey

The survey's results were published on Monday. In total, 1000 captains and co-pilots took the survey. No less than 94% indicated wanting the company's flight safety to be examined. That's one-third of the Irish low-budget carrier's captains and co-pilots. The investigation would have to be conducted by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA).

Flight safety culture 'not open and transparent'

67% of all pilots who took the survey admitted preferring not to report safety issues through Ryanair's internal report system. This could be a sign of fear to openly criticise the company and its policy. The general conclusion is that the airline's flight safety culture isn't open and transparent.

A second conclusion that can be drawn from the survey is that the general willingness to report incidents is far too low. For instance, when a safety light is broken or when a pilot fails to consult the checklist, this isn't always reported. According to Evert van Zwol, chairman of the RPG, information and knowledge about past safety incidents aren't used and shared to their full extent within the company.

Threats and measures

The Twitter and Facebook accounts of several pilots were allegedly taken offline by Ryanair. In addition, management is said to have threatened with layoffs. "We wanted to file a petition, but Ryanair immediately issued threats, stating every pilot that signed such a document would be fired. That's why we decided to conduct the survey anoymously," according to van Zwol.

Written by: Team Flight-Delayed.co.uk