Originally Posted by
Twiglet1
ATC I don't think its fair to lump Malaysian with Ukraine Intl. Many worldwide major AOC's were flying the same route as Malaysian. I know of only 1 AOC that avoided it although I stand to be corrected. BA are currently flying over Afghanistan they will have done their homework are they putting profit before safety I sincerely doubt it.
On the Malaysian , there were quite a few airlines that were avoiding the airspace altogether that day . from my memory (*) the Ukrainian NOTAM was restricting airspace below FL300 or so , and many flew above as it was not restricted. An intelligence bulletin based on satellite images came out one or 3 days before showing Russian BUK systems being moved to Eastern Ukraine. How various airlines reacted to that intelligence ( or even were made aware of it) varied considerably and even within the same airline group where OPS are separated. For instance Air France chose to take the detour and avoid the area completely ,but KLM did not. We saw apparently the same now with Emirates and Fly Dubai. on Iranian airspace.
As to UK airlines doing better than the rest, I am unfortunately old enough to remember the Kosovo war , where some British Charter airlines choose to fly at night from UK to Greece , on a route passing 10 NM from were NATO was bombing and the Serbian were firing SAMs, and seven shot down a F117 and aF16 not far from that route.
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But seeing the same again today ,whether it was right after 7 October in Tel Aviv where many airlines continued to fly under Iron Dome and Hamas rockets some falling 10-20 NM from the airport. . or now using East Iraq to by pass Iran , or worse overflying Iran knowing that the Israeli were bound to retaliate. It might not be
putting profit before safety but it is definitively not putting safety first.
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(*) from memory , apologies in advance if the figure is not correct I do not want to reopen the MH17 files and reports.