Joint Statement Demands Control Of Anti-Aircraft Weaponry

A group of four international aviation associations has called for an international convention for the control of anti-aircraft weapons in the wake of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in July.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Airports Council International (ACI) and Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) released a joint statement promising to look into the system that determines the safety of flying over conflict zones, and calling on governments to make more reliable information about those regions available to airlines.

Forbes reports that airlines had been told that it was safe to transit Ukrainian airspace above FL320, but MH17 was reportedly flying 10,000 feet above that altitude when it was apparently hit by a surface-to-air missile. At an ICAO news conference in Montreal, Canada, Jason Sinclair, IATA's manager of corporate communications for the Americas, said that the industry is not suggesting that the system is inherently flawed, but "clearly we've identified a gap."

IATA CEO Tony Tyler said at the news conference that the attack on MH17 was "an attack on the whole air transport industry," and added that information on air corridors that may be dangerous should be accessible to carriers “in an authoritative, accurate, consistent and unequivocal way,” according to Forbes.

Tyler said that air transportation is still "the safest mode of transportation known to humankind," but stressed the importance of "identifying some specific gaps in the system" that can "lead to unspeakable mistakes and tragedies."

FMI: www.icao.int, www.iata.org, www.canso.org, www.aci.aero