Gulf Air halting flights over Iraq

[saly4]

Gulf Air has halted flights over Iraq, following a near-miss with a military aircraft which forced the pilot of a London-bound flight to take emergency evasive action.

"Gulf Air has decided not to use this route over Iraq until allied authorities have conducted a full investigation and provided an explanation," said an airline spokesman.

He said Gulf Air would use alternative routes to London which are internationally known to be safe.

"The safety of passengers and our crews is the most important matter to us as a national airline," said the spokesman.

The drama unfolded early on Saturday morning as Gulf Air's flight to London, with 156 passengers on board, was crossing Iraqi airspace.

Radar and the plane's hi-tech sensors revealed that an object was hurtling towards it.

The captain was forced to change both route and altitude suddenly to avoid a collision.

He had only 10 seconds to manoeuvre, said the spokesman.

"As the airspace over Iraq is controlled by allied forces, this had to be a military aircraft which should not have been flying at that altitude," he said earlier.
:D

[Fox3snapshot]

Well if the military were operating 'due regard' what is the problem??!! :rolleyes:

And yes I am being sarcastic, I find it entertaining that they stop the Iraq routings when ATC are dealing with these situations on a daily basis in OBBI/UAE and Muscat FIR's for many years now! A P3 that decided to turn off his transponder operating Due Regard in the Muscat FIR 5 or more years ago had a good look at a Gulf Air arrival into Seeb. During the peak of Enduring Freedom and ongoing Afghan/Iraq ops there were numerous incidents, thankfully for the paying public mostly military assets but the odd civil passenger aircraft too.

A typical example of the lack of thought that goes into these matters is the main coalition tactical entry point to Afghan ops through the Muscat/Karachi FIR had its entry and exit levels at complete odds to the conformal levels. This meant the aircraft were leaving the civil airspace at international convention levels and finding themselves head to head with their mates coming out of the tactical area at the same level. Trust me this was on an hourly basis and there were some very serious blue on blue incidents up there.

I have bleated about Tactical Due Regard (dis-regard) ops for many years now and usual story it will take a bunch of pop rivets and metal spread out over 20 nm before anyone will realize that it is a stuff up and has to be looked at more carefully.

The airspace is so conjested in this region now with civil and military alike the probablility of a catastrophe is forever on the increase.

:suspect:

[LDG NO BLUE]

Gulf Air Flight Safety culture:

You get to hear about things on newspapers and pprune. Not a word from the company so far. :ugh:

LNB

[ironbutt57]

Gulf Air flight safety culture....present the facts when they are sorted and clear..not the media version...which would you rather have??? Now the US military is denying any aircraft were involved...suprised???:ugh:

[Tristar]

Just for info it is DGCAM that stopped Gulf Air using the Iraq route.:=

IMHO it’s a blessing in disguise; since the Iraq route saving was on average US$ 200. However the numerous climbs and descents that we where experiencing and the numerous occasions that the planed levels where not given, probably outweighed the meager savings.:rolleyes: