Safely Flying Foreign: Millions of Americans boarding foreign airlines may not be aware of risks

Some passenger safety advocates are concerned that the U.S. government is not sufficiently informing Americans about which foreign airlines fail to meet the minimum international standards for safe flying or maintain proper safety standards of the airlines within their borders.

An article featured in USA Today, Travel quotes the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) saying, "More than 20 percent of foreign civil aviation authorities evaluated by the FAA, or 22 of 103 countries assessed, don't meet minimum international safety standards and don't sufficiently oversee the airlines in their countries."

The European Union (EU), however, provides passengers with a list of more than 270 foreign airlines from 20 nations that are banned from flying into EU airports due to unsafe standards.

The FAA supports their approach to regulating aviation safety overseas by having the U.S. government interface with foreign governments, rather than working with individual airlines. The FAA uses an International Safety Assessment Program to evaluate international airlines' safety standards and maintains that each country's aviation authorities are responsible for aviation safety standards and airlines' compliance with national aviation laws.

Read the full article in USA Today, Travel on safely flying foreign airlines.

Read about Motley Rice's aviation lawyers and how they work to protect passenger rights and fight on behalf of victims' family members or injured crash survivors.