Originally Posted by Globaliser
The way that the CX captain told it to me, there are some bits of high ground in Afghanistan that are close to 20,000 feet above sea level. If, at that point, you're restricted in the cruise to something in the FL300-350 range ... well, he said that there were other airlines that had not been banned, and still planned overflights, so the crews simply turned off all their lights and watched the fireworks around them as they cruised overhead.
Was this back when the US was still actively bombarding Afghanistan? This used to be why Iraqi airspace was closed to commercial traffic for a long time - to keep civilian aircraft clear of live-fire zones and well away from military operations. A fully loaded 747 could make for some major collateral damage...
