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Air Blue, Air Safety

Air Blue Families Safety Activists

April 24, 2012 April 25, 2012

As long as we’re talking about efforts made toward safer skies in Pakistan, we should mention Hans Ephraimson-Abt, the Air Crash Victims Families Group and the Air Blue Families which have been instrumental in:

Obtaining interesting progressive and unprecedented rulings from the Peshwar High Court;

Obtaining from the Government and Parliament, with the input of the Air Blue 202 families, a new progressive new Air Law;

“Lessons Learned” from past experiences;

118 victims in BOJAH B4-123 were positively identified within 24 hours (in the fastest proceedings of other tragedies substantial ID took 4 days in Comair 191 (Lexington, KY);

The first 18 burials took place within 24 hours (Saturday);

35 more burials and services could be conducted on Sunday;

The Government mandated the inspection of all commercial planes with the exception of PIA that had already been inspected previously.

I can not emphasize too much how important the Family Association can be. A strong Family Association meets regularly and develops strategies to make sure that their voice is heard. They have a forum to express valid criticisms of flying conditions, the investigation, or other concerns that may develop. What is more important is that sometimes they have the strength to affect change to avoid future tragedies—as they are working to do in Pakistan. And when one Family Association has successes, it can be “catching”.

In a recent case in Brazil, the Family Association pressured not only the airline company but the military, federal aviation department, and the airport commission all of whom were suspected to have contributed to the accident. The association pushed for criminal prosecution of those who were negligent, as well as against those who allowed wrongdoing to occur. And they didn’t stop there. Leaders like the secretary of Associação Brasileira de Parentes e Amigos das Vítimas de Acidentes Aéreo Christophe Haddad—who lost his fourteen year old daughter to the Tam crash—lend their experience and passion for justice—to other families struck down by tragedy. As Christophe recently told me “Again and again we see the same picture. Pain, sorrow, tragedy, families broken…Hard to comment about but here we are again.”

With help from men like Christophe Haddad and Hans Ephraimson-ABT, the Air Blue Family Association is developing its own teachers, leaders, and power of influence. In Pakistan, we look forward to when the Air Blue Family Association may become equally as instrumental a force for change in Pakistan as the Brazil group is in Brazil. There is power in right. There is strength in numbers.

Since 1985, Hans Ephraimson-ABT has been the Chairman of “The American Association for Families of KAL007 Victims.” Since 2000 he has been the spokesman for the “Air Crash Victims Families Group” and is also an invited observer delegate at the “International Civil Aviation Organization.” His group is a model for other groups, and he is a frequent spokesman. He has stakeholder status at the European Union. During the past 26 years, he has participated and served in various capacities in workgroups at the National Security Council, the National Economic Council, two Presidential Commissions, the Task Force that implemented the “Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act of 1996” and subsequently the ICAO “Guide on Assistance to Aircraft Accident Victims and their Families” of 2001. He has been invited to testify before Committees of the US Senate and the House of Representatives. He was one of the original members of the air carrier focus groups that developed and subsequently implemented post-crash crisis management plans in the United States. Since 1996, he has been asked to assist airlines and governments with the resolution of air transportation tragedies, including the “September 11, 2001 Victims Compensation Fund” and as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of the “Families of September 11th Association.” He is often invited to participate and speak at international conferences and he is a published author. He is not a disinterested observer in the fight for aviation safety. He is a survivor. In 1983, his daughter Alice Ephraimson-Abt was aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by a Soviet pilot.