WRITTEN QUESTION E-0681/02

by Caroline Jackson (PPE-DE)and Phillip Whitehead (PSE) to the Commission

(11 March 2002)

Subject: Air passenger safety on Virgin Express flights and seat pitch regulations

Experience of flying between Brussels and London Heathrow using Virgin Express has brought to light the fact that the rows of seating on the aircraft used are placed so close together that it is not possible for passengers to adopt the brace position in the event of an emergency. Since the aircraft are registered in Belgium, and therefore regulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Virgin Express is not legally required to provide a specific minimum space between each seat. However, the present seating arrangements clearly compromise the safety of European air passengers using these flights. Is the Commission aware of the situation?

Does the Commission intend to introduce EU-wide regulations to increase the standard seat pitch following the conclusions of a recent study commissioned by the Joint Aviation Authorities, which found that it should be lengthened in view of the increase in the height and weight of the population?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(25 April 2002)

Aeroplanes are certified by the Member States according to safety standard JAR-25 of the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), whose application is mandatory in the Community through Council Regulation (EEC) No 3922/91 of 16 December 1991 on the harmonization of technical requirements and administrative procedures in the field of civil aviation(1). JAR-25 itself complies with the requirements of Annex 8 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and is largely harmonised with its American counterpart FAR-25 of the Amercian Federal Aviation Administration.

In the safety standards referred to above, cabin lay-out parameters such as seat pitch and others are not controlled explicitely, but are controlled implicitely by the requirements on evacuation and protection against head and leg injury during emergency landing.

Like any standard, JAR-25 is periodically adapted to technical progress and changing needs. The Joint Aviation Authorities dispose therefore of a research budget for the funding of safety related studies. The study, to which the Honourable Members refer, forms part of a JAA co-ordinated research programme on cabin safety.

The study concerned evaluates seating conditions in the light of current population body dimensions with a view to the emergency landing requirements referred to above.

As long as the future aviation safety agency has not yet become operational, standardisation is still being carried out by the JAA. The Commission is therefore of the opinion that it is in the first place for the experts of the JAA to evaluate the study results and to decide whether amendments to the JAR-25 standard are required or not. It does therefore not plan to propose a regulation on seat spacing itself, but prefers to deal with the results of the study through a modification, if needed, of the mandatory safety standard JAR-25. The Commission regards the subject of the study an important safety element and will follow the work by the JAA closely.

After the aviation safety agency will have become operational in the near future, aircraft and its parts and appliances will be certified by the agency under application of airworthiness specifications proposed by the Commission upon recommendation by the Agency, and adopted by the Commission according to the regulatory committee procedure.

(1) OJ L 373, 31.12.1991.