Carriers to seek 'neutral' info on airspace use

[MONTREAL] Global airlines were to push to get "neutral information" on whether to use or avoid airspace over conflict zones at yesterday's meeting of the UN aviation agency and other airline bodies, a European-based airline industry source said.

The UN agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), has invited the heads of the airline industry, airports and the world's air traffic control networks to the Montreal meeting to discuss what needs to be changed to ensure that airliners are flying in secure airspace after the downing of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine on July 17 took 298 lives.

The meeting is likely to hear calls for wider international powers to intervene when a country fails to monitor threats to its airspace. The Malaysia Airlines crash occurred after Ukraine left open air corridors that lay within the range of the missile blamed for destroying the jet.