Ukraine shuts down airspace for civilian flights due to "high risk" to ensure safety

Ukraine shuts down airspace for civilian flights due to “high risk” to ensure safety. 

Ukraine announced early on Thursday that it was closing its airspace to civilian flights due to the “high risk” for safety. Hours after, a monitor for the conflict zone advised airlines to stop flying flight overflights to avoid an unintentional shooting down or cyberattack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in the eastern part of Ukraine on Thursday, which could be seen as the first sign of conflict in Europe. 

“The supply of air traffic services for civilians using Ukraine’s airspace Ukraine is temporarily suspended,” Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise stated on its website.

“We will also inform you about modifications to the use of Ukraine’s airspace,” the agency stated without giving any further information.

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Eurocontrol, which manages air traffic throughout Europe and the Middle East, stated that Ukraine’s airspace wasn’t accessible due to military restrictions.

The El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto abruptly veered out of Ukraine’s airspace when an announcement to airmen was sent out early on Thursday, declaring the zone as restricted, as per the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

The LOT Polish Airlines flight from Warsaw to Kyiv was also able to turn back to Warsaw about the same time.

The shifts occurred following Safe Airspace, which was established to provide security and conflict zone information to airlines following the incident in Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was destroyed over the eastern part of Ukraine in 2014. It claimed it had raised the risk by a factor of “do not travel.”

“Regardless of the actual movement in the direction of Russian troops into Ukraine The level that there is tension, uncertainty Ukraine is currently very high,” Safe Airspace said on its website. “This is a serious risk to aviation security.”

The report also warned about the possibility of a cyberattack targeting Ukrainian air traffic controls.

Russia has closed a portion of its airspaces within the Rostov flight information zone in the eastern part of their border with Ukraine “to provide security” for flights in civil aviation by notification to airmen.

Before Ukraine was informed of airspace restrictions, airlines from the United States, Italy, Canada, France, and Britain had advised their airlines to stay clear of certain areas of airspace over eastern Ukraine as well as Crimea, but they stayed short of a complete ban.