Whistleblowing within Aviation Leasing

Does your Aviation company need a whistleblowing hotline 

Leasing aircraft in the aviation industry is a common practice. Whether leases are taken for a short-term (wet leasing) or for an extended period (dry leasing), leasing allows airlines to cope with extra demand, as well as operating without spending much larger amounts on purchasing planes.

Sometimes however, these aircraft may come with issues that could put those travelling within them at risk. In order to maintain a high level of safety and confidence within aviation, European law states that 'relevant civil aviation safety information should be reported, collected, stored, protected, exchanged, disseminated and analysed, and appropriate safety action should be taken.'

Whistleblowing is an important means of ensuring safety, highlighting situations where substandard work is carried out, issues are ignored or covered up, and the public are put at risk. Making such issues known to regulators and other bodies can mean the difference between life and death, especially when it comes to aviation leasing.

The potential dangers of leasing planes

Taking on aircraft to carry passengers is a huge responsibility, and a lot of trust has to be placed with the manufacturer and the company that is leasing the planes. Unfortunately, not everybody can be relied on to act with scruples, and so there must be a way to make complaints heard outside of the companies involved when there is a real threat to life.

Some of the most recent stories involving dangerous planes and accidents have centered around issues including:

• The use of faulty parts
• Infrequent maintenance work (especially on planes leased from overseas)
• Insufficient training being provided to pilots
• Poor flight simulation programmes
• Malfunctioning flight software
• Covering up the above

Each of these scenarios has caused fatalities and injuries within the last five years alone. They have also formed the basis of whistleblowing cases that will protect passengers and ensure higher standards are met in future.

What a whistleblower can do and how they can go public

If you have seen behaviour or actions that you believe constitute a threat to public safety, then you can make a report and blow the whistle while retaining your anonymity.

Aviation business operators who want to support whistleblowing should implement Safecall’s neutral complaints investigation service. By working with Safecall, you can put in place a system that will improve safety and transparency, and give staff the confidence to facilitate positive change.

Previously, the main method of whistleblowing was to contact the  European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) or Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and fill out an online form.

In order to use these services, you must provide the following information:

• The specifics of your concern and what the implications are for the public
• The location where an incident took place 
• How you became aware of an issue
• The name of the organisations or aircraft involved
• Any previous correspondence, such as emails passing information to managers that have not been acted upon

Safecall’s investigators have decades’ worth of experience, working in the police force amongst other bodies, and guarantee a thorough and fair examination of every claim.

To find out more about partnering with Safecall, contact us today.

Protecting your business with Safecall

Safecall offers an independent and non-bias platform for concerns to be raised.

This means that whistleblowers can speak out in freely, with the knowledge that their complaint will be rigorously pursued without any personal repercussions or detrimental effect on their career. For business operators, Safecall promises that our pool of seasoned investigators, who largely have policing backgrounds, will judge the evidence on its own merits, without prejudice or preconceptions, in order to arrive at a fair and considered conclusion.