Strasbourg, 09/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - Data about risks involved in flying over conflict zones will be the subject of an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) initiative. On Saturday 3 February during a high level ICAO security meeting, the EU gave its support to a recommendation in this connection. This will involve drawing lessons about the MH 17 flight crash in Ukraine.
The 36 member states of the ICAO Council adopted the objectives on flights over conflict zones in their recommendation. This will mean the ICAO developing a central database of risk assessments updated by the different countries and international organisations. Centralised online resources are expected to help facilitate the exchange of information on restrictions and assess the risks.
The European Commission considers that this kind of action, which has been discussed at a global level, will help complete the on-going European level work on preventing airline crashes and ensuring passenger safety. The Director-General of DG Transport at the European Commission, Aguiar Machado, was eager to show that the European Union sought to prevent the repetition of accidents that have occurred recently. He therefore said that he supported global action over conflict zones, as well as for flight tracking.
The high-level ICAO meeting has effectively recommended the adoption of standards for aircraft tracking. This also follows another incident that occurred with Malaysian Airlines in 2014 when flight MH 370 disappeared. This will involve establishing a standard as the first step towards elaborating a global tracking system. (Marie-Pauline Desset)