Flights without transponders

29.4.2015

Question for written answer E-006817-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Urmas Paet (ALDE)

In European airspace and the Baltic region in particular, Russian warplanes have more and more often been flying without transponders. They are invisible both to passenger aircraft and to civilian air traffic controllers and are thus creating a danger. I have already brought this matter to the Commission’s attention. International aviation regulations need to be widened, and from that point of view the EU could take the lead. In December of last year the Commission asked the European Aviation Safety Agency for information about the increasingly frequent incidents involving civil aircraft and warplanes flying without transponders. What conclusions, if any, has the agency put forward, and what developments have taken place in recent months in regulating this area in order to improve aviation safety?