Unlucky Malaysia Airlines innocent in latest tragedy

Last week while overflying Ukraine, contact was lost with Malaysian flight MH17. This was the second such incident this year for the beleaguered airline. Since this occurred over land, pretty soon footage surfaced purporting to show the actual crash.

By the end of the day, journalists had confirmed that the wreckage found was indeed of the missing plane.

Initial indications pointed to the plane being shot down by a missile. Since Ukrainian separatist rebels had tweeted about shooting down a military plane, coupled with the intercepted incriminating conversations between rebels, most of the world has concluded that they were responsible for the attack.

Of course the other side has been quick to lay the blame on government forces though with slightly less convincing evidence.

Many people have wondered why the plane was flying over a war zone in the first place. As it happens, planes overfly regions involved in conflicts every day. At any one time, there is a skirmish going on in Africa somewhere with the airspace remaining open.

Planes are vulnerable to attack at low altitudes during take-off and landing because they present large, slow moving targets. Once at cruising altitudes, planes require sophisticated weapons to shoot them down.

A competent, professional army with proper command and control structures or ill-equipped rebels pose a low risk to civilian traffic. For this reason planes have overflown Afghanistan, Iraq and Mali during military conflicts.

As much as airlines have security departments, making these sorts of judgements are outside their capabilities. Airlines instead rely on notices to airmen or notams that inform them of airspace closures. Issuing notams is the responsibility of individual states or in exceptional circumstances the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Ukraine and Russia had both issued notams affecting the concerned airway limiting traffic to fly at 32,000 feet and above. While recent intelligence has suggested that rebels had acquired the missiles capable of shooting jetliners, it appears this information had not filtered down to the aviation authority.

Operators from first world countries also have the added advantage of recommendations from their own governments. However, these may be overly general and based on classified information and be of limited use to an airline. The existence of this advice may force an airline to comply despite low risk simply to avoid potential litigation.

Avoiding all conflict zones would introduce costly dog legs to every flight. If all airlines did it there would be no problem as the higher ticket price would be passed on to all consumers thus no airline would be at a competitive disadvantage.

A captain could also reject a flight through a conflict zone if they felt it was unsafe. However, barring specific guidance from notams or the airline, he would be on shaky ground.

There are many people to blame for this tragedy, but the unlucky Malaysian airlines is not one of them.

Dr Ondieki is a pilot with an international airline.