Plug holes in sharing of data on air risks

The MH17 tragedy has shown the need for a better and more accurate system that can warn airlines of the dangers in the skies.

SINGAPORE Airlines and other carriers that used to fly over Ukraine before a Malaysia Airlines jet was blown out of the skies a week ago have come under fire, accused of knowingly putting passengers at risk.

But aviation experts say it is unfair to blame just the carriers when, in fact, it is the entire global aviation community that should shoulder the responsibility for not plugging the holes that clearly exist in the current system.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was flying from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur last Thursday when it was shot down in an apparent missile strike while crossing over eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels are fighting government forces.

All 298 passengers and crew on board died.

Following the crash, travellers were shocked to learn that in the week just before that, many carriers, including SIA, Germany's Lufthansa and Air India, had collectively operated hundreds of flights over the same area.

At least two flights - flown by SIA and Air India - are believed to have been within 25km of the Malaysian jet when it was blown up.

Netizens took to social media and readers also turned to The Straits Times Forum Page to lash out at SIA and the other airlines.

Why were they flying over what is clearly a conflict zone? It did not help that a few other carriers, including South Korea's airlines, decided months ago to avoid Ukraine's airspace even before the incident.

It is unacceptable, especially for a premium carrier like SIA, to be so lax about the security of its customers, travellers and netizens said.

Surely its customers deserve better.

And even if avoiding danger zones means flying longer routes and incurring higher operating costs, so be it. It is the right thing to do.

The anger and controversy prompted a reply from SIA's senior vice-president for flight operations, Captain Gerard Yeap.

He said in a letter published in The Straits Times yesterday that decisions on the use of airspace are made based on numerous factors, such as weather, safety and security conditions, advisories from international and regional bodies, and any restrictions that may be imposed by the national authorities responsible for the safety of the airspace.

In the case of Ukraine, the particular airspace that Flight MH17 used was cleared by the national Ukrainian authority managing it.

There were other parts of the country's airspace that were closed to commercial flights, and SIA and other airlines had been avoiding these areas for many months, he said.

Safety a top priority

CAPT Yeap also revealed, without saying where, that there are several other parts of the world "that we proactively avoid flying through, even though they are available for use".

Syria is one example, industry insiders reveal.

Speaking on behalf of global airlines, Mr Tony Tyler, chief executive officer and director-general of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), said the top priority is safety.

"No airline will risk the safety of their passengers, crew and aircraft for the sake of fuel savings," he said last Saturday, following the crash.

No matter how direct a route and how much more it would cost to operate a longer flight, airlines will never take the cheaper option if they know of potential danger along the way, Iata stressed.

To say airlines should avoid all conflict zones may not be feasible, said Mr Brian Michael Jenkins, an aviation expert with the Rand Corporation in the United States.

"Commercial flights do fly over areas where there are conflicts, and there are ongoing conflicts in many parts of the world - Syria, Iraq, Ukraine... There are low-level guerilla wars taking place in probably half the countries in Africa right now - a big swathe of countries right across the Sinai and into the Middle East.

In those cases, it can't be that everyone has to go around because it's half the continent. So they fly over but with altitude limitations," he added.

Global aviation rules

THE rules of global aviation were written in 1944 with the establishment of the Chicago Convention. This led to the creation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a United Nations agency that oversees global commercial aviation.

The cardinal premise is that states are responsible for their own airspace.

By the same token, it is the duty of a state embroiled in armed conflict to advise the international aviation community on potential dangers, said retired US airline pilot John Cox, who runs his own consultancy.

Ukraine had, in fact, done this and issued what the industry calls a Notice to Airman (Notam) to keep airlines updated on flight restrictions. In this case, the advice was not to fly below 32,000 feet.

MH17 was cruising at 33,000 feet when it was hit by what was believed to be a surface-to-air missile. In hindsight, the advice should have been a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Mr Cox said: "The country owning the airspace is the one with the most knowledge and the logical choice to provide information for the Notam."

Flight notices and restrictions, as well as advisories issued by states for their own airspace, is available to all carriers through the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN).

This is an age-old mechanism established by ICAO to enable the exchange of operational information within the aviation community.

For as long as an airspace is open and air routes are approved by ICAO, airlines are permitted to operate flights in the area.

With the exception of eastern Ukraine in the aftermath of the MH17 disaster and North Korea, almost every other part of the world is open to commercial carriers despite conflicts that are raging in many countries.

It is then up to the airlines and their own states and regulators to decide what to avoid.

No doubt, everyone has now got their flight charts out and are reassessing all paths that currently pass through conflict areas. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has also asked Singapore carriers to review their risk assessment on conflict areas.

The current state of affairs is clearly unacceptable for travellers. There needs to be more gathering and sharing of information at the global level for the sake of the billions who fly every year.

There must be a better system in place to warn carriers of dangers in the skies and this can be achieved only if the global community - ICAO, Iata, governments, air regulators, security agencies - comes together.

New system needed

THE community needs to be more proactive, perhaps by coming up with a list of high-risk airspace, instead of relying only on countries embroiled in a conflict to issue warnings.

"A central location for information affecting flights could be gathered and distributed," said Mr Cox. "The current Notam system is antiquated and difficult to use. A new, modern and efficient notification system could benefit operators, and passengers."

The key would be to use modern data-gathering systems to send the information accurately and quickly to a main central database where it would be collected, and reviewed regularly for accuracy and timeliness.

One of the problems with today's system is determining which notices still apply and which ones do not, Mr Cox said.

That the crash of MH17 happened just four months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has put immense pressure on ICAO, Iata and airlines to fix major problems that the disasters have uncovered.

In the case of MH370, which is presumed to have crashed into the Indian Ocean while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, the incident brought to light the lapses that currently exist in the tracking of commercial aircraft.

Within weeks of the tragedy, ICAO chaired a global meeting, facilitated by Iata, to push for real-time aircraft tracking when it is flying as an industry priority.

It is a matter of time before similar action is taken in the aftermath of MH17.

As investigators begin the gruesome task of unravelling what happened to the flight and why 298 people had to lose their lives, work must start now to ensure this never happens again. 

This article was first published on July 24, 2014.
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