Kuala Lumpur: The commercial director of Malaysia Airlines yesterday called for a complete overhaul of the way flight paths are deemed safe following the downing of flight MH17 by a suspected missile over rebel-held eastern Ukraine.
Writing in Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, Hugh Dunleavy said the disaster would have “an unprecedented impact on the aviation industry”, claiming that airlines can no longer depend on aviation authorities for reliable information about flying over conflict zones.
“For too long, airlines have been shouldering the responsibility for making decisions about what constitutes a safe flight path, over areas in political turmoil around the world,” he wrote.
“We are not intelligence agencies, but airlines, charged with carrying passengers in comfort between destinations.”
Airlines seek the most direct routes possible to minimise flight time and fuel costs, but must take account of “notices to airmen” (NOTAMs), which advise of danger in specific places and at specific airports.
These are issued both by aviation authorities from the home country of the airline and by the countries they are flying over.
Although NOTAMs were in place over some areas of Ukraine at the time, MH17 was not in contravention of any of these.
AFP
