The 21st annual European Aviation Safety Seminar took place  in Nicosia, Cyprus before an audience of 200.  Hosted by the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), the European Regions Airline Association (ERA), and EUROCONTROL, the seminar was staged ti ensure that attention continues to be focused on aviation safety during a global economic downturn. The seminar included panels to update on current and operational issues as well as a strong focus on the culture of aviation safety and handling risk. "We cannot ignore the fact that there have been a number of high profile crashes recently in Europe and North America. While we can rightly applaud the survivability of most of these incidents, we must ask ourselves why this is happening," noted William R. Voss, President and CEO of FSF. "At a time when everyone is under economic pressure, combining scarce resources and sharing best practices is a must to ensuring we can continue to improve safety standards," said Erik Merckx, Deputy Director Central Management Functions at EUROCONTROL.  Mike Ambrose, director general of ERA. said "in the current economic climate where fear of redundancy is very real, an open-reporting culture is more important than ever."