Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was traveling on the very edge of permitted air space when it was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile in the late afternoon of July 17. Considering the number of Ukrainian aircraft that had been shot down in recent days, the numerous warnings by various air traffic agencies and the closure of a part of the related air space, the question arises as to why the passenger jet was where it was in the first place.
The European air traffic management agency Eurocontrol says that the
doomed airliner was flying over contested air space at flight level 330, an
altitude of 10,000 meters, or 33,000 feet, when radar lost track of it, while
the Ukrainian air traffic agency had closed all flights below flight level 320.
In addition, several influential air traffic agencies had been warning airlines
since the beginning of Ukraine’s conflict with Russia in March to avoid certain
areas of Ukraine. Already on April 2 the United Nation’s International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) issued a letter to its member states advising of a
potentially unsafe situation because of the presence of more than one air
traffic services provider in the Simferopol area, which includes Crimea and
parts of southeastern Ukraine.
Since Russian’s annexation of the region on March 17, the air traffic
agencies of both countries have been claiming jurisdiction over Crimea. On
April 16 and again on July 7 the ICAO ruled that Crimean air space exclusively
belongs to Ukraine, although Russia de facto runs it.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration,
meanwhile, on April 23 issued a ‘special notice’ regarding Ukrainian airspace
to U.S. aviators and air carriers advising them not to fly in airspace around
Simferopol and also warned operators and pilots flying in other parts of
Ukraine, including Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odesa, to “exercise
extreme caution.” The warning will remain in effect until April 23, 2015.
Even so, Ukrainian authorities only restricted eastern
Ukrainian air space on July 1, and then only below 26,000 feet, says
Eurocontrol. As late as June 4, the Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise
(UkSATSE) stated that it still “ensures flight safety in the airspace of
Ukraine and international airspace over the high seas at the relevant level.
Moreover, UkSATSE ensures trouble-free operation of branches of Joint
Civil-Military System of Air Traffic Management of Ukraine irrespective of
foreign interference in work of air traffic services bodies in Crimea and at
the East of Ukraine.” The altitude was extended to 32,000 feet on July 14 after
several the insurgents had been able to knock down three Ukrainian aircraft
with surface-to-air missiles.
Aircraft shot down by Russian proxy insurgents in southeastern Ukraine
Since the onset of hostilities and the repeated
warnings, some airlines have been steadily avoiding Ukrainian air space.
According to Asiaone news agency, for example, Taiwan’s China Airlines diverted
its flights starting April 3, Singapore Airlines had “earlier” re-routed its
flights to alternative corridors away from the region, Hong Kong’s Cathay
Pacific had not been using Ukrainian airspace “for quite some time,” and Pakistan
International Airlines had re-routed “some time ago.” In Europe, Dutch carrier
KLM says that as a precautionary measure it already avoided flying over the
concerned territory.
Eurocontrol announced that Ukrainian authorities had
closed all eastern Ukrainian air space to commercial flights shortly after the
crash. “All flight plans that are filed using these routes are now being
rejected by Eurocontrol,” the organization said. “The routes will remain
closed until further notice.” Airlines are complying.
Flight MH17 went down in the Dnipropetrovsk Flight
Information Region and was about to be passed onto the Rostov region in Russia,
according to Eurocontrol. Of the 27,000 flights cross the European continent
every day, according to the Single European Sky project of the European
Commission, as many as 300 international civilian flights were still crossing
the hostile territory before the tragedy, according to Eurocontrol. European
airspace is structured around 28 national air traffic control systems managing
about 60 air traffic centers divided into more than 650 sectors.
Why take the risk? Asked as to why Malaysia Airlines
had not taken similar precautions, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said that
international air authorities had deemed the flight path secure, reported
Asiaone. However, this flies in the face of all preceding evidence. A more
likely reason is that diverted slights cost more money in fuel, as suggested by
Norman Shanks, former head of group security at airports group BAA.
A number of industry experts also have gone on record
to explain “there was a belief that a plane could not be shot down at that
altitude, which is why aircraft continue to fly over zones that have wars going
on,” as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. According to David Fuscus,
president of Xenophon Strategies, this is “because airlines often rely on being
high enough to avoid most dangers,” reported cnbc news. Such flights typically
cruise at between 33,000 and 37,000 feet, according to Eurocontrol. The
European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents more than 38,000 European
pilots, has said that the route flown by the crashed Malaysian aircraft was “the
most common route for flights from Europe to South East Asia.”
Eurocontrol spokesperson Brian Flynn told The Sydney
Morning Herald on July 18 that airlines can elect to avoid an area even if it
is not closed, but that he did not believe any had chosen to do so in eastern
Ukraine. “I’m not aware of any airlines that were specifically avoiding that
area,” he said.
Kyiv Post business
journalist Evan Ostryzniuk can be reached at [email protected].
