France has called for a world aviation blacklist in the wake of a Yemeni airliner crash, but the plan would be tough to implement and requires the political will of many governments to succeed.
An important means of pressure as well as a sanction for security failures, the list would have to be backed by governments and supervised by national capitals rather than any global aviation body.
Spokesman at the International Civil Aviation Organisation Denis Chagnon, said, ''A blacklist is an action taken by states and the states are responsible for enforcing its requirements.''
Putting an airline on it would be a hard decision to take because such a move was a costly sanction, something like ''a death sentence'' for a company, he said.
Search teams yesterday detected a signal from the black boxes of the Yemenia airliner that crashed off the Comoros last week with 153 people on board. In the aftermath of the crash, the European Commission also mooted a world blacklist based on the EU's own rankings.
The EU's method rankles, with some governments exerting heavy political pressure to ensure that their national flag carriers are not targeted, but the results are clear.
Garuda Indonesia was added to Europe's blacklist two years ago, and following corrective measures is due to be removed from a new list to be released within the next fortnight.
Yemenia Airways was on the verge of being listed a year ago, but narrowly escaped after drawing up a ''corrective action plan''.
Not only does it force airlines to act, blacklisting can also free up public funds to help companies improve standards AFP