Playing with fire? After MH17 crash, Malaysia Airlines diverts London flight over Syria

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia Airlines has defendeditself after confirming that it diverted a London to KualaLumpur flight over Syrian airspace when its usual route overUkraine was closed in the wake of Thursday’s MH17 crash.

The flag carrier said in a statement yesterday that MH4’sflight path was in accordance with routes approved by the
United Nations’ aviation agency International Civil AviationOrganisation’s (ICAO).

“As per the notice to airmen (NOTAM) issued by the SyrianCivil Aviation Authority, the Syrian airspace was not subjectto restrictions. At all times, MH004 was in airspace approvedby ICAO,” it said.

Dozens of airlines previously flying over crisis-strickeneastern Ukraine abandoned the well-used route between Asia andEurope after MH17 went crashed with 298 people onboard,apparently shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

Previous MH4 Airbus A380s have flown over Turkey,according to air traffic tracker Flightradar24.

But it posted on Twitter yesterday that Sunday’s flightflew over war-torn Syria, where the conflict is raging both onthe ground and in the air.

“As far as we have seen #MH4 was the only transcontinentalflight going over Syria,” it wrote on its @flightradar24
Twitter account.

MH17 crashed over eastern Ukraine – where the militaryhas been fighting pro-Russia separatists – on Thursday on itsway from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers and 15crew aboard.

Both the rebels and Moscow deny claims by the UnitedStates and Ukraine that MH17 was shot down by the insurgentsusing a missile system supplied by Russia.

It is the second ill-fated Malaysia Airlines plane thisyear, after flight MH370 mysteriously disappeared en route
from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, carrying 239 people.

The jet, a Boeing 777-200 like MH17, is believed to haveveered off course and crashed in the southern Indian Ocean,but no trace of any wreckage has been found.

AFP