GLOBAL aviation authorities have condemned the gunning down of Malaysia Airlines MH17, and pledged to cooperate on building stronger information frameworks and tackling the issue of arms manufacture, in order to prevent a repeat of the tragedy that claimed 298 lives.
ICAO convened a high-level meeting consisting of representation from IATA, Airports Council International (ACI), and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) in Montreal yesterday to discuss how to do that.
All attendant organisations agreed to the immediate establishment of a senior-level task force composed of state and industry experts to begin work straightaway on addressing the civil aviation and national security aspects arising from MH17, in particular how information can be effectively collected and disseminated. Findings by the task force will submitted soonest possible to a Special Meeting of the ICAO Council for action.
The industry has further called on ICAO to make fail-safe channels where essential threat information can be made available to civil aviation authorities and the industry.
Said Tony Tyler, director general and CEO of IATA: “We were told that flights traversing Ukraine’s territory at above 32,000 feet would not be in harm’s way. We now know how wrong that guidance was. It is essential that airlines receive clear guidance regarding threats to their passengers, crew and aircraft. Such information must be accessible in an authoritative, accurate, consistent, and unequivocal way. This is the responsibility of states. There can be no excuses. Even sensitive information can be sanitised and still remain operationally relevant.”
ICAO and partners are also aiming to push into international law through UN frameworks, measures governing the design, manufacture and deployment of modern anti-aircraft weaponry.
“Weapons of war – including powerful anti-aircraft weaponry – are also in the hands of non-state entities. We have conventions that address chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons, plastic explosives and weapons trade generally. But there is no international law or convention to manage them as exists for many other forms of weaponry. MH17 shows us that this is a gap in the international system which must be closed,” commented Tyler in an IATA release.
Kuala Lumpur-bound MH17 had departed from Amsterdam and was flying through Ukrainian airspace with 298 people on board when it was shot down by an anti-aircraft missile, killing all on board (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 22, 2014).
The incident has led to a host of questions from all stakeholders in the industry about who determines whether a flight route, especially those over war zones, is safe for travel.
