In May 2017, the European Commission released an updated EU Air Safety list. Commonly referred to as the EU Ban list, it consists of airline carriers that are banned from operating within European Airspace due to the lack of adequate regulatory oversight and/or the serious safety concerns. As a part of this update, Med-View Airline (Nigeria), Mustique Airways (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Aviation Company Urga (Ukraine) and Air Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe) were officially added to the EU Ban list as a result of unaddressed safety deficiencies that were detected by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

In mid May 2017 state carrier, Thai Airways International, officially recertified its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) and as a result, is recognised to be compliant with ICAO standards. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand (CAAT) reportedly stated that the carrier was the third airline to successfully renew its AOC after an ICAO Audit conducted in 2015 discovered a number of Significant Safety Concerns (SSC) within the CAAT and its operations. The CAAT has been in collaboration with the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority with the aim to recertify all Thai carriers by June 2017.

On the 22nd May, the Egypt Civil Aviation Authority (ECAA) announced that the investigation into the crash of Egypt Air MS804, which impacted the Mediterranean Sea on the 19th May 2016, has been handed to Egypt’s Public Prosecutor. As per Article number 108 of the Egyptian Civil Aviation Law No. 28 1981, if the investigation team suspects that a criminal act was a causal factor of a fatal accident, the case shall be referred to the public prosecution to conduct a criminal investigation. The update comes following the examination of the aircraft’s recovered Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorders (FDR/CVR) which captured one of the flight crew mentioning the word “fire” prior the accident occurring. Additionally, initial findings confirmed that traces of explosive materials were found in some human remains