ICAO seeks to warn airlines of risks in conflict zones

[VANCOUVER] The United Nations' civil aviation body will launch two pilot projects designed to help airlines and states better share information about risks in conflict zones, the organisation said on Tuesday, nearly six weeks after a Malaysian airliner was shot down over Ukraine.

The plans were announced at the conclusion of a two-day meeting by the International Civil Aviation Organisation's (ICAO) special task force on flights in conflict zones, which has been given the complex task of addressing risks to airliners in conflict zones.

The first pilot project will look at how the existing Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system can be used to better share urgent and critical risk information, the Montreal-based agency said. The second project, to be piloted by unnamed "key ICAO partners", will establish a new centralised system for the "prompt sharing of conflict-zone information".