Singapore Airlines reroutes flight plan after missile threat

Los Angeles, USA - February 22, 2016: A Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 with the registration 9V-SKS taking off at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in the USA. The Airbus A380 is the world's largest passenger airliner. Singapore Airlines is the flag carrier airline of Singapore.

The recent missile threats from North Korea have garnered their fair share of airtime across the media.

However, in the last few weeks, the threats have becoming a little more relevant to the industry, as airlines have reported seeing the missiles mid-flight.

Now, the latest to be affected by the country is Singapore Airlines, who, according to The BBC reportedly rerouted their flight plans after missile threats in July.

According to the news site, a spokesperson told The BBC the airline had decided to reroute flights between Seoul and Los Angeles after a threat in July.

German carrier Lufthansa also told the BBC it had been making changes to its flight plans for more than a year.

As well as this, the spokesperson said that since the July missile,  it also evaluates “each individual airline route on a daily basis”.

A decision on whether its planes should avoid the Sea of Japan is also “taken every day”, they told The BBC.

This follows the crew of Cathay Pacific claiming to have seen North Korea’s latest missile test while in the air last week.

The incident happened during an overnight flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong, and crew aboard have stated they saw the missile re-entering airspace after North Korea launched the deadly weapon at dawn.

Cathay assured the media that the missile was far away from the plane and the flight path was unaffected.

 “At the moment, no one is changing any routes or operating parameters,” the airline said in a statement.

“We remain alert and (will) review the situation as it evolves.”

Cathay is not the first airline to come forward and make the claim, however, with Korean Air pilots on two separate planes also reporting seeing strange flickers of light while flying over Japan.

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