The airspace over Ukraine is usually filled with planes, as flights headed for major airports in Europe and Asia fly overhead.
This is what it looks like today, according to an image sent in a tweet by Newsweek.
The map above shows Ukrainian airspace after Malaysia Airlines lost contact with MH17.
When Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down earlier today, airlines around the world reportedly told their planes to avoid the area completely, reports Business Insider.
The aviation arm of the United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, had declared the route taken by MH17 as safe.
But News.com.au has reported that the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority posted a notice on June 14 “urging carriers to avoid flying over Crimea and southern Ukraine due to safety concerns”.
The CAA notice said that “operations are normal in all other Ukrainian FIRs [flight information regions],” but added that planed headed into the Dnepropetrovsk flight region (which is where MH17 went down) would need to “review current security/threat information”.
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I was under the impression that they had been avoiding this airspace for some time, that it wasn't a reaction to today's tragedy and that Malaysia took its chances as there had been no official statement that it was a "no fly zone".
That's not what I heard. Apparently it is quite common for airlines to fly over war zones. Although there was a warning a few weeks ago about avoiding that area but no airlines were heeding it.
That is incorrect. Qantas and a number of other airlines made the decision some months ago not to fly over the Ukraine. This was as a result of a couple of cargo planes being shot down by rebels. However, Malaysian Airlines and others chose to continue on this route as it is shorter and thus saves on fuel. Malaysian Airlines said the 'governing body' has not yet declared this route as dangerous, so they took the chance and their passengers paid with their lives. And now Malaysian Airlines are again playing their same old game - not giving any information out to the relatives at the Kuala Lumpur Airport. This is what happens in a country that does not have an active and FREE press. They do what they like. And now that Putin has announced that the Ukrainian Government was responsible for the shooting down of the aircraft, he will use this as an excuse to invade the Ukraine and continue on his murderous plan to re-unite the USSR, the break-up of which has haunted him and maddened him for 25 years.
European and UK air authorities had been avoiding and as today there was a no fly zone to 32000 feet, the airline was about 1000 above that. Euro air advice was to avoid having routes across this space. British airways were avoiding it altogether, however it is common to fly over conflict. So yes, some had been avoiding it (like British airways) and others chose to go over.
There are lots of conflicting media reports going on atm. This was just what I had heard as of this morning. Thanks for your input though.