AirAsia Flight 8501 crash raises concerns over airline safety

The AirAsia flight 8501 crash is raising concerns about air safety, in a part of the world where explosive traffic growth and deadly accidents often go hand in hand. Even though it's not yet known exactly what caused the jetliner to crash, many have expressed worry over the regulation of certain international carriers.

"The problem is, how do you fill the left seat and right seats of those cockpits?" CBS News travel editor Peter Greenberg said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." "How do you train pilots sufficiently so you've got experienced people up there in the front of the plane? And there is a pilot shortage out there."

The Wall Street Journal reported that air traffic in the Asia Pacific region increased by two thirds in the past five years and Asian carriers have been involved in four of the five events with the most fatalities. Those include the 2010 Air India Express crash, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the Flight 8501 crash as well as the attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

While recent events have focused attention on Asian countries, global air safety is still a concern. For many years, both the FAA and European Union (E.U.) have tracked and listed airlines that they deem unfit to fly in their airspace.

Countries that the E.U. has flagged include Afghanistan, Liberia and Indonesia.

"Indonesia, that country has probably the worst record of as far as the European Union is concerned, of airlines that have been banned," Greenberg said. "In fact, at one point, all but five of the country's 67 airlines were banned from European airspace."

Greenberg said that the U.S. does not publicly release their equivalent of the E.U's list, but that the FAA does track countries in what they call the International Aviation Assessment Program, where they also list countries with airlines they deem deficient as set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The International Air Transport Association also helps to monitor global air safety with nearly 250 airline members who pass their Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). While the certification is internationally recognized and designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline, it is not mandatory for airlines to obtain IOSA certification.

He recommended to check those lists before flying in any foreign country.