The office of Prevention of Aircraft Accidents “strangled” by withers-financial – Public.en

the director of The Office of Prevention and Investigation of Aircraft Accidents (GPIAA) has warned that it cannot meet its financial obligations and called for the creation of a fee of 20 cents per airplane ticket to resolve the problem.

In an interview to TSF this Tuesday, Álvaro Neves complained about the financial situation of the entity that directs, which is independent but subordinated to the Ministry of Planning and Infrastructure, assuming that the prevention and investigation of aviation accidents can be compromised if the problem is not resolved.

“Strangled by a garrote until the inoperable”, said the responsible to the TSF, explaining that the situation “complicated further” this year.

Alvaro Neves said to the TSF that the budget that the cabinet had about 500 thousand euros, “was already to many fundamental things, but the situation has worsened because the current Government has cut 40%”.

According to the official, the situation has led to that the office is “unable to meet the financial obligations of day-to-day”, as well as the “travels of the researchers, something essential in certain processes or actions of prevention”. So, Alvaro Neves considers “urgent the creation of a fee of 20 cents pays for the plane ticket, which is fundamental to create, also, a reserve fund for the State in the event of a serious accident”.

Álvaro Neves has also stressed the TSF that if the rate does not advance, the prevention and the investigation of accidents in Portugal may be compromised. The entity has more than 100 pending cases, in addition to a huge lack of human, material and financial.

In the interview, the director of the office admitted that it has had threats from the suppliers and is said to have been three days without communications on the emergency line to report accidents.

Álvaro Neves admitted in a text that he wrote for the community sector that the agency is “unable to lead an investigation of a large air crash in the national territory”.

The governments act so, “perhaps to remain convinced that Our Lady of Fatima deliver us from a serious accident”, something that “is almost inevitable to happen sooner or later because the country has around 600 thousand aircraft movements per year,” wrote the director of the GPIAA, quoted by the TSF.