Dutch pilot says MH17 could have veered off flight path in bad weather
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 could have gone off its most recently used path as the pilots avoided thunderstorms in southern Ukraine, Britain's Guardian reported today.
Nico Voorbach, a pilot with the Royal Dutch Airlines who flew the same journey earlier this summer, said poor weather might have been the reason MH17 was targeted by a surface-to-air missile (SAM).
Flight MH17 had departed Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on Thursday with 15 crew members and 283 passengers.
The Boeing 777 was shot down in the restive Donetsk region of east Ukraine, killing all on board.
"I heard that MH17 was diverting from some showers as there were thunderclouds," Voorbach, who heads the European Cockpit Association, told the Guardian.
"You would normally ask air traffic control to divert left or right and they would give permission."
It has been reported that when MH17 was shot down, the aircraft was many miles north of the flight path it had used on previous days to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
It has also been reported that MH17 had initially submitted a flight plan requesting to fly at 35,000 feet above Ukrainian territory.
Upon entering Ukrainian airspace, the pilots were instructed to fly at 33,000 feet by the local air traffic control due to other traffic.
Malaysian officials said flight MH17 had to follow the lead of local aviation authorities.
"MH17 flew at an altitude which had been set and deemed safe by the local air traffic control," said Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
"The aircraft never strayed into restricted airspace as the flight operators followed the rules.
"However, on the ground, the rules of war were violated," Liow told a press conference.
MAS operations director Captain Izham Ismail has also refuted claims that heavy weather led to MH17 changing its flight plan.
"There were no reports from the pilot to suggest that this was the case," Izham said.
Putrajaya has stressed that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) had given the green light for commercial airlines to continue flying over Ukraine prior to the MH17 disaster. – July 20, 2014.
