Australian, Korean airlines shifted Ukrainian flight routes months ago
Australia's Qantas Airways , Korea Air Lines Co Ltd and Asiana Airlines Inc said today they shifted flights operating over Ukrainian air space months ago amid increasing tensions between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels.
The Australian flag carrier said it shifted the flight path for its London to Dubai route over Ukraine some 400 nautical miles to the south "several months ago."
A Qantas spokesman declined to comment on the reasons for the shift, but a spokeswoman at Asiana Airlines, which stopped flying over the area on March 3, cited intensifying geopolitical tensions. Korean Air Lines stopped flights at the same time.
A Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) plane was brought down in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 298 people on board, in what the United States said was probably a ground-launched missile strike.
Data from airline tracker Flightradar24 shows other commercial flights in the area at the time of the crash. A Singapore Airlines flight and an Air India flight were around 24 kilometres away, according to the data. – Reuters, July 18, 2014.
