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Ukraine warning about unsafe airspace months before MH17 disaster ignored

This was important not only for Ukraine’s treasury, but also for European airlines. They used the airspace for their flights to Asia. Flying around means extra fuel consumption.

‘Deep concern’

In the background, Ukraine and the European Commission had entered the final phase of negotiations on an aviation treaty. Thus, neither side had an interest in putting pressure on Ukraine to close its airspace.

In the explanation issued by ECAC after the meeting expressed only “deep concern” about the situation in the airspace over Crimea. In addition, countries were called upon to adhere to international agreements to prevent security risks in Ukrainian and the ‘adjacent’ airspace.

Airspace remains open

The official’s notes therefore do not mention the closure of the entire Ukrainian airspace due to the dangerous situation. Many airlines continued to use the airspace above the battle, including KLM and Malaysia Airlines.

Other airlines, such as Delta and British Airways, have been flying around Ukrainian airspace since the annexation of Crimea by Russia. As early as April 2, flying over Crimea was discouraged by aviation organization ICAO.

And on April 3, a flight ban was imposed by the American aviation authority FAA for US airlines. As a result of this ban, only more flights were flown over eastern Ukraine, as it turned out in 2015 from research by the NOS.

On July 17, 2014, passenger flight MH17 was shot down over that area with a Buk missile originating from Russia. All 298 people on board were killed, including almost 200 Dutch people.

Shared with NCTV

The content of the report of the Dutch official is remarkable, because until now the Dutch government has always maintained that there were no indications of a ‘concrete threat’ against civil aviation.

The Ministry of Justice and Security defends itself by stating that ‘the discussed agenda item only related to the flight information region over Crimea and not to Ukrainian airspace as a whole’. In other words, the warning did not apply to the airspace where flight MH17 was flying when it was shot down.

According to the ministry, the interview report was shared by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment with the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) for a different reason.

Aviation safety

This happened because of ‘aviation security’, ‘usually’ fixed agenda items at ECAC meetings, according to a spokesperson on behalf of the NCTV. What has been discussed under these agenda items, the ministry refuses to make public.

The fact that the NCTV had received the report was already announced in 2017 by the then Minister Blok of Security and Justice confessed in response to questions from Pieter Omtzigt and Martijn van Helvert, then MPs on behalf of the CDA.

Nothing further has been done with the warnings from Ukraine at the NCTV, the spokesperson said. The parts of the report that were published after RTL Nieuws’s Wob request were about ‘air navigation’, or air traffic control. And that falls under the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, according to the NCTV.

It is not clear what happened to the interview report at the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. The Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (and predecessor IenM) has been refusing to explain this for years.

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