SEPANG: MALAYSIA Airlines flight MH17 was one of 400 commercial flights, including 150 international flights, crossing eastern Ukraine daily before it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.
In a macabre twist of fate, the Boeing 777-200 drew the short straw. Two hundred and ninety-eight lives were snuffed out in a blink of an eye.
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the flight path used by MH17 was a busy major airway, akin to a highway in the sky.
He said the aircraft, which crashed near the town of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, had followed a route that had been set by international aviation authorities, approved by European air safety organisation Eurocontrol and used by hundreds of other aircraft.
Eurocontrol approves all European flight paths under International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules.
“Officials from Eurocontrol also stated that in the two days before the incident, 75 different airlines had flown the same route as MH17,” Liow said during a press conference here yesterday, responding to earlier comments by Eurocontrol officials that were published in the Wall Street Journal.
Liow said MH17 flew at an altitude set, and deemed safe, by local air traffic control (ATC).
It never deviated from its assigned flight path into restricted airspace.
“The flight and its operators followed the rules. But, on the ground, the rules of war were broken.
“In an unacceptable act of aggression, it appears that MH17 was shot down; its passengers and crew killed by a missile,” he said in his opening speech.
Present were Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Jailani Johari, Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman and MAS operations director Captain Nizam Ismail.
On MH17 flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet, just 1,000 feet above the safe altitude set by the Ukranian authorities, Azharuddin said that was normal. With regard to the missile threat warnings not falling within ICAO’s purview, Azharuddin said each country and service provider should alert and update the airlines on the ground situation.
“They are responsible for making announcements to the aircrew, warning them of high-risk or conflict areas,” he said.
Nizam said all pilots, before take-off, would file their preferred, optimum flight level. However, clearance lies with air traffic control, depending on the traffic at the time.
“For instance, MH17 planned to fly at 35,000ft. However, when the aircraft entered that piece of sky, there were other traffic.
“That is why the Ukrainian air traffic control did not permit it to fly at 35,000 feet and cleared it to fly at 33,000 feet instead, which was 1,000 feet above the restricted altitude set by the Ukranians,” he said.
On other airlines changing their flightpaths away from the conflict zone out of their own free will, Nizam said the decision to follow certain flight paths was based threat analysis made by the airlines.
“As for Malaysia Airlines, the threat analysis found the route to be safe. All airlines conduct their own threat analysis.
“Qantas, for example, does not fly that route. They fly to Europe via Dubai,”
