Days after the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 tragedy, airlines are taking safety matters into their own hands when it comes to flying over conflict regions.
On Tuesday, US and European airlines cancelled their flights to Israel. That decision came after a rocket landed close to the country’s main airport. The Israelis and Hamas militants have been engaged in a deadly battle for more than two weeks. Both Delta and United airlines have said they will suspend service to Tel Aviv indefinitely. American aviation officials have called for a 24-hour flight ban.
Meanwhile, the debate over whether Malaysia Airlines should have been flying over Ukraine at all continues. Anti-government forces and the Ukrainian military have been fighting for months and some governments had told airlines not to fly in that airspace. Others argued that at 33-thousand feet there was no threat. Malaysia Airlines insists that Flight MH17’s path from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur had been approved by international regulators.
