Airline KLM-Air France is still flying its passenger planes over war zones, one year after flight MH17 was brought down by a missile, killing all 298 people on board.

The airline continues to fly routes over Mali, South Sudan and the Sinai desert, despite denials from the company, broadcaster Nos says.

After MH17 was brought down, probably by a missile fired by pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine, a decision was made to avoid war zones, or at least to fly at higher levels.

However, the Nos carried out spot checks on websites planefinder.net and flightradar24.com, which show flight paths in real time, These show that European airlines including KLM-Air France, Lufthansa and British Airways are still flying over war zones.

KLM continues to deny it uses these flight paths. In February, KLM chief Pieter Elbers told the Nos KLM does not fly over war zones such as the Sinai. ‘We do not fly over these areas, nor over Mali,’ he said.

Safe height

When the Nos confronted KLM with its latest findings, a spokesman admitted they do use these routes, but at a safe height. ‘Like everyone, we make a risk assessment which is dependent on many factors. We only fly over the Sinai and South Sudan based on a Notam,’ he said.

A Notam is a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route.

Investigation

Following the MH17 crash, the security service regulator CTIVD, was asked to investigate by home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk and defence minister Jeanine Hennis. They, in turn, received the request from the safety research council OVV which is looking into the cause of the crash, the NRC reported at the time.

The OVV wants to know what role the security services had in deciding which routes were safe for civilian air travel. In addition, it wants to know how widely that information was disseminated among air safety organisations.

There are claims that European air safety officials had called for airspace above eastern Ukraine to be closed in the weeks prior to the crash.
Flight MH17 came down on July 17 and is being commemorated all this week.