The Business Times
business-time-50
THE BROAD VIEW
·
SUBSCRIBERS

MH17 was the warning. The Middle East is the test

Aviation safety faces new challenges amid escalating US-Israel-Iran tensions. Is the industry ready?

Summarise
google-preferred-sourceAdd BT as a preferred source
阅读简体中文版 (beta)
    • A plane taking off from an airport in Lebanon. In modern conflicts, states often lack full visibility over their territory. Airspace may be legally open while operationally unsafe.
    • It has been more than a decade since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
    • A plane taking off from an airport in Lebanon. In modern conflicts, states often lack full visibility over their territory. Airspace may be legally open while operationally unsafe. PHOTO: REUTERS
    • It has been more than a decade since Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine. PHOTO: BT FILE

    Linus Benjamin Bauer

    Published Fri, Mar 27, 2026 · 09:00 AM

    GEOPOLITICS and aviation safety rarely intersect as violently as they did on Jul 17, 2014. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, a Boeing 777 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

    In the decade since, the aviation industry has confronted an uncomfortable truth: The system designed to keep civil aviation safe was never built for an era of fragmented conflicts, asymmetric warfare and proliferating advanced weaponry.

    Today, as tensions escalate across the Middle East – including risks around Iranian airspace – the lessons of MH17 are no longer historical. They are operational.

    AirlinesAviationRegulationrisk managementIran war

    TRENDING NOW

    The CSRC is leading the effort, along with the National Financial Regulatory Administration, which handles consumer protection and supervises banks.

    Why China is tightening controls on overseas stock trading

    US President Donald Trump with President Xi Jinping after a visit to Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing, on May 15.

    Xi Jinping has just rewritten the rules of US-China rivalry

    Always one to walk the talk, DBS CEO Tan Su Shan has her personal AI agent that checks and serves up to her the latest news on banking.

    ‘Even a CEO’s job can be replaced by AI’: DBS CEO Tan Su Shan bets big on agentic AI

    Set up by Nichol Ng and her brother, FoodXervices traces its roots to 1934 with the business their grandfather started.

    ‘Whole deck of cards just toppled’: FoodXervices’ Nichol Ng on how a 92-year-old family business unravelled – and what’s next

    Latest T-bills Treasury Bills Results & Interest NewsLatest SSB Singapore Savings Bonds NewsLatest COE Certificate of Entitlement News
    Latest Johor-Singapore SEZ NewsLatest BTO Build To Order & Sales of Balance NewsLatest STI Straits Times Index NewsLatest SGX Dividends, Share Price NewsLatest Bonds Market NewsLatest Singapore Stocks To Buy NewsLatest Singapore Economy News
    View More