Originally Posted by
Mr A Tis
Given what happened to MS17, can I ask about any similar safety implications to all those aircraft routing Europe- Middle East?. I appreciate that most commercial carriers are avoiding Syria & Iraq and are routing Turkey-Iran airspace. I presume Russian missiles are being launched from the Caspian sea. Are risk assessments made about this airspace? - whereas in MH17 Ukraine this didn't take place.
If the Russian cruise missiles are what you are referring to, they don't go up to FL altitudes. They go up in the air, and then tend to fly to their target at low level to take advantage of terrain masking. The most recent launch was a Russian Missile very similar to a Tomahawk. Those, at least, aren't a risk to commercial air carriers except in the terminal area during approach/landing, or takeoff/departure -- and that is if whomever launched it didn't do any mission planning.