Italy has grounded a reconnaissance plane used by a German migrant rescue charity, in the first use of tighter regulations for such aircraft, the NGO said, raising concern that the measure seriously limits their capacity to operate and puts migrants' lives at risk.
The National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC) confirmed on Friday that the Sea-Watch group's Seabird 1 plane had been placed under administrative detention after being informed by the Italian coastguard that its pilot had failed to notify relevant authorities about an emergency situation at sea.
Sea-Watch called the aircraft's detention "a new escalation in the Italian government's fight against civilian human rights observation in the Mediterranean". It said it was considering legal options against the grounding of its plane and had deployed another monitoring aircraft to continue its work.
Italy has temporarily halted dozens of charity rescue vessels, and last year passed a decree allowing similar measures against charity-operated aircraft.
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