LAMPEDUSA – Not only are Italy’s ports closed to NGO rescue ships, its airports are also closed to NGO planes used for Mediterranean fly-overs to assist in locating migrants in distress at sea, La Repubblica reports.

 Moonbird and Colibrì, two planes that signal the position of migrants’ inflatable dinghies to rescuers have been denied takeoff permission for almost a month by The National Agency for Civil Aviation (ENAC), leaving them unable to take off from Lampedusa or other airports in Italy, to continue assisting in rescue missions.

 “National regulations require that those aircraft can only be used for recreation and non-professional activities,” the national civil aviation authority said.

  “Those of Search and Rescue are professional operations that require an authorization regime, incompatible with amateur built aircraft.”

 For those involved in search and rescue missions, a set of eyes in the sky is the most effective way to identify rafts, giving the advantage of quickly being able to relay geographic co-ordinates via radio.

 The only option left for NGO’s such as Moonbird (of German NGO Sea Watch) and Calibrì (of the French Voluntary Pilots association) is relocating to another country where they can take off from other airports.

 Before their move to Italy, the two planes were based in Malta. But from Jan. 1 to early June, 54 of their 78 missions left from Lampedusa.

 But they hadn’t counted on ENAC technicians’ assessment that “Colibri is not an aircraft certified according to known safety standards and is in possession of a special flight permit that doesn’t enjoy recognition for conducting operations on the high seas.”

 In other words it’s outlawed, and it has also recently been modified without communicating to the Italian association what’s been done. The same applies to Moonbird. 

 According to the NGOs, behind the “bureaucratic complications” lies a “political will to stop the reconnaissance activities.” 

 “Evidently they are annoyed that the eyes of civil society are as much in the sea as in the air,” they said.

 For the time being, the airports remain closed to the two aircraft.

 cc