The European Aviation Safety Agency issued a safety bulletin in conjunction with Eurocontrol and the UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on 3 April, advising that Crimean airspace in southern Ukraine should be avoided. However, the directive did not apply to the airspace over Ukraine being used by flight MH17 when it was brought down.
On Friday the ICAO stressed it was up to individual member states to declare unsafe areas of airspace. "ICAO does not declare airspace safe or unsafe or undertake any other direct operational responsibilities with respect to civilian air services," said spokesman Anthony Philbin, according to a Reuters report. "It is always the responsibility of our sovereign member states to advise other states of potential safety hazards," he said.
In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration issued any previous guidance about eastern Ukrainian airspace before flight MH17 was shot down, despite attacks on other aircraft in the erea in the past month.
Malaysia's transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said: "The airspace the aircraft was traversing was unrestricted. I think since it's an approved route it is safe and that's the reason why we have been using this route."
Around 200-300 of the daily flights on the route had diverted elsewhere in recent months, according to FlightRadar24 data. However, about 100 aircraft a day from more than 60 different airlines were seen in the region over the past week. A Singapore Airlines jet from Copenhagen to Singapore was flying within 20 miles of flight MH17 at the time of the crash, according to the FlightRadar24 data. Philip Plantholt, of FlightRadar24, said: "There were for sure commercial aircraft within a 25km radius."
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said airlines depended on governments and air traffic control authorities to advise which airspace was available for flight, and safety was carriers' top priority. Nico Voorbach, president of the pilots' body the European Cockpit Association, called on aviation authorities to take immediate measures to secure all flights in the region.
John Strickland, an independent aviation consultant, said airlines selected routes based on cost efficiency, taking into account the effects on journey times of wind at high altitude. "Safety is always first, airlines are certainly not wilfully putting their passengers and aircrew at risk," he said. "Airlines pick routes known to be the most cost efficient and fastest in flying time, but that is all secondary to safety."
Strickland said routes could vary by hundreds of miles each day depending on wind conditions. He said longer routes would not just increase fuel costs, which account for 30% of flight costs on average, but also play havoc with airline timetables. "Longer flights will anger passengers, and mean that planes aren't in the right places at the right time, which can have knock-on effects around the world," he said.
Geoff Dell, an accident investigation and safety specialist at CQ University in Australia, said airlines should not have chosen routes that flew over the area. "It's blatantly obvious they shouldn't have been anywhere near it," Dell said. "Any sort of unrest breaks out, civil wars or such, you change your flight path so that you don't have to go anywhere near it. Of course it comes at a cost, because you have to fly further."
[source : Many airlines have avoided Ukrainian airspace for months, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/airlines-avoid-ukraine-airspace-mh17, 18th July 2014]
It should be : Safety. Safety. Safety.
But with MH17 it was : Money. Money. Money.
Ukraine needed the money to finance their Nazi-esque persecution of the anti-Nazi East Ukraine.
Malaysia Airlines needed to cut costs.
As discussed at length yesterday in WHY DID UKRAINE NOT SHUT DOWN ITS AIRSPACE?, Ukraine knew the separatists had BUKs. As MH17 was falling out of the sky, Lysenko said they had video of them travelling through Luhansk!!
So why did Ukraine not shut down its airspace?
And did Ukraine then try to mug the world off by passing that video off as being filmed at 0500 on 18th July 2014, the day AFTER MH17, when it was taken before 17th July 2014?
As ICAO spokesman Philbin said:
"ICAO does not declare airspace safe or unsafe or undertake any other direct operational responsibilities with respect to civilian air services. It is always the responsibility of our sovereign member states to advise other states of potential safety hazards,"
Ukraine knew. Who did they inform?
And does this exonerate Malaysia Airlines?
No!
Why did British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and other airlines avoid flying over the region for months previous to 17th July 2014?
Because they assessed they were flying over a war zone. Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines didn't think that was a reason enough. They were greedy.
It should be: Safety. Safety. Safety.
But the prime responsibility lies with Ukraine and NATO.
Ukraine knew BUKs were in the area so they should have shut the airspace down.
And NATO destabilised Ukraine in the first place leading to the civil war.
