AIR TRAFFIC IN CROATIA IS SAFE - CROATIAN OFFICIALS

ZAGREB, Sept 20 (Hina) - Croatia's air traffic is safe and meets all European standards, representatives of the Croatian Transport Ministry, Croatia Airlines, and flight control told a news conference on Wednesday. Assistant Transport Minister Boris Smrecki, Croatia Airlines director Ivan Misetic and Croatian Flight Control director Drazen Ramljak dismissed claims published in the latest issue of 'Nacional' weekly that air traffic in Croatia was facing collapse. Dismissing the claim that five incidents which could have resulted in tragic consequences were recorded in the past two months alone, Ramljak said in 130,000 this year's flights only three cases of "close encounter" of planes were recorded. Ramljak said that compared to European rates this was a very small number which showed a high degree of safety of air traffic in Croatia. Misetic dismissed claims that the Croatian airliner was not applying European standards as regarded maintaining and piloting planes. He stressed that none of the European airliners, such as KLM, Lufthansa or Alitalia, had any objection to the safety of flights. Croatia Airlines was recently included in the 100 safest airliners out of 447 companies and was described by the German press as a respectable and safe company, Misetic said. Refuting claims about frequent failures on plane engines, as many as 11 times in the last 15 months, Misetic said that since the establishment of the company four cases of engine failure and one fire on an engine had been reported, whereas not one incident had been reported on new Airbus planes. (hina) rml