ELDR BACKS LIZ LYNNE DRIVE TO TOUGHEN RULES ON AIRLINE DVT SAFETY

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 4th Sep 2001

The European Liberal Democrat group of MEPs has agreed to back plans by West Midlands Euro MP Liz Lynne to toughen rules on safety and access for airline passengers.

ELDR has agreed to support a number of amendments put down by Liz Lynne to the Collins report on Protecting Air Passengers Rights. They will be debated at a plenary session of the Parliament in Strasbourg later today, Tuesday September 4th.

Liz Lynne's amendments call for seat back safety cards detailing safety precautions passengers can take to cut the risk from deep vein thrombosis and other health problems and for the rules to apply to short haul as well as long haul flights. Other amendments Liz has put down call for legislation to guarantee full access to flights by passengers with disabilities, who are often arbitrarily barred from boarding or suffer other forms of discrimination which make travel unpleasant or humiliating.

Liz Lynne, who suffered a deep vein thrombosis herself last year after a flight from Crete, said: "Our proposals are very reasonable and would not cost a great deal. It would not be difficult for a health safety card to be added to the ones which are already used for lifejacket and emergency landings advice.

"It would be ridiculous just to confine it to long haul flights, which would exclude many long journeys using connecting flights, quite apart from the fact that there is evidence that DVT can be suffered after quite short flights, as I know from personal experience. I think airlines will find it more practical to apply these rules to all flights in any case.

"And disabled passengers should surely be treated fairly. I have had so many reports of quite appalling and arbitrary discrimination being suffered by passengers with mobility problems."