Phuket Air again

[stevem]

The French aviation authorities have banned Phuket Air from French air space, the following is from their web site

ACTING in response to a series of civil aviation disasters, France early today published a list of five airlines banned in its airspace for safety reasons, including four already known plus a Thai company.

The civil aviation authority (DGAC) said on its website that the banned airlines were Air Koryo from North Korea, Air Saint-Thomas from the United States, International Air Service from Liberia, Air Mozambique (LAM) and Phuket Airlines of Thailand.

The ban was extended to Transairways, a subsidiary of LAM, the DGAC said. The dates of the banning orders were given as April 2001 for Air Koryo, March 19, 2004, for Air Saint-Thomas, April 1, 2004, for International Air Service, December 3, 2004, for LAM and June 4, 2005, for Phuket Airlines.

The announcement of the measures followed a string of fatal accidents this month, and notably a crash that killed 160 people in Venezuela, almost all of them French tourists from the Caribbean island of Martinique, on August 16. Fatal crashes have also occurred this month near Athens and off the coast of Sicily. An Air France jet slid off the runway at Toronto's international airport, but all aboard managed to escape alive.

The initiative brings France into line with Britain, Switzerland and the United States, where authorities have either identified banned airlines or named countries where civil aviation regulations are deemed to be inadequate.