plumbar

I was on SQ 25 a month or two ago and was curious that SQ was flying over Eastern Ukraine and even parts of Afghanistan. I really wasn't concerned since I assumed that radar could detect a commercial aircraft and I also assumed that SQ was in communication with ground control that they were in the airspace so thought nothing of it.

After today's apparent shoot down of Malaysia Airlines, I wonder if all the other airlines which had used the same flight path will now change their routings in known war areas?

afmiami

Yes they already announced that the airspace over that area is closed. I wonder what will happen with other troubled areas. This could mean longer flights and, eventually, higher prices. But of course safety comes first.

jbfield

You could argue that this demonstrates safety has come second...wait until a problem, then fix it, is not the risk-averse attitude I like when flying.

It wouldn't have been that much more distance to route through Belarus or even Romania c.2% more; but perhaps would have cost more in ATC charges and delays due to flow congestion.

SQ319

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BswajgMCAAAsJYw.png:large

If anyone of you is interested in the flight radar images around the time of the crash. SQ351 is approx 10 degrees northeast of MH17.

lcpteck

Look at this tweet from @flightradar24. Air India was nearby as well.

SQ319

SQ initially said (on FB) that they were not flying over Ukrainian Airspace, but have since clarified to say that they are "no longer flying over Ukrainian airspace".

The FB post seems misleading...

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/...s/1270454.html

aster

What route does Finnair take from SIN to HEL, isn't it way more northern than the regular routes of other carriers to airports like LHR, MUC, FRA?

SQ319

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/ay82/#3d6ace7

kmcbrid2

I beleive airlines continued to fly over Iraq and Afganistan. The reason, IMO, is that only one side in those conflicts have aircraft and the ability to shot down high flying aircraft. So it was safe to fly over those two conflicts as high flying aircraft were not activetly being targeted.

The one thing I'm unclear about in the Ukraine if the recent downing of Ukraine aircraft has only happened within the last week or so. This means that only recently has the pro-russian forces have attained the ground-to-air rockets and or and Russian forces decided to engage Ukraine aircraft.

Either way this may have been a recent development and the airlines may have not had a chance to update their risk assessements to change routes.

Airlines can not avoid all conflict areas in the world as there are always conflicts. It's the conflicts which aircraft are activetly being targeted and shot down that airlines must avoid IMO.

jbfield

They wouldn't be able to use that route even if they wanted to as it was closed following the incident.

SQ319

It's not a matter of whether they want to, but the fact that they said they don't use Ukrainian airspace, when there are radar pictures of SQ351 clearly in Ukrainian airspace.

So the way they have said it is very misleading as it is clearly untrue.

lcpteck

Yep, SQ's own tweet, very misleading.

irishguy28

The FB post you link to says "are not", not the "were not" that you have claimed. But perhaps they have edited it.

It would be strange for them to say they "were not flying" - it doesn't really matter, at this stage, where previous flights were routed; and we know that most airlines (the exception being BA and AF, apparently) were using Ukrainian airspace - as long as they stayed above 32,000 feet this was allowed. What people worry about is what might happen on future flights, not what didn't happen to past flights.

plumbar

That may be true, but I can assure people on this board that I was on S25/26 on the last weekend in May and I clearly saw on the moving map that we were pretty close if not directly over Donetsk, Ukraine.

Maybe I had foresight but I clearly thought this was odd and wondered why take that route other than being the most direct route. It all comes down to maximizing revenue over safety, albeit the threat assessment might not have been as severe as it now appears to have been.

w_tanoto

let's hope they won't reopen that airway soon. I will be in SQ352 this December.