Lord Tyler ask Her Majesty's Government: Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Davies of Oldham on 10th January (WA 33) and the subsequent statement by the Civil Aviation Authority that there had been an incident on the Boeing 757 aircraft registered G-BIKI on 9th November 1998, what steps they are taking to improve the reporting regime for incidents involving contaminated cabin air in aircraft. [HL3947]

Lord Davies of Oldham: The mechanism for reporting contaminated air events is well established through the CAA Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Scheme, which is organised to receive reports of incidents affecting airworthiness.

In the case of the incident involving flight G-BIKI on 9 November 1998, this was unfortunately not reported to the CAA at the time by the airline involved due to an administrative oversight. On 18 January 2006 the incident was drawn to the Department’s attention by a member of the flight crew. The CAA has subsequently contacted the airline concerned. Under the Mandatory Occurrence Reporting Scheme flight crew themselves have the right to contact the CAA direct about an incident if they choose to, and to have their confidentiality respected.

We remain satisfied with the effectiveness of this system because it enables both airlines and crews separately to report incidents to the independent regulator.

16 February 2006