Joyce says lessons to be learnt from MH17

Joyce says lessons to be learnt from MH17
By Hannah Edensor


The shooting down of a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine shows security information needs to be shared among all airlines, the head of Qantas says.

Several airlines had decided to avoid the airspace over Ukraine before flight MH17 was shot down with a Russian made-missile on July 27 last year, killing all 298 people aboard, including 38 Australian residents and citizens.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce says the disaster highlights the need for all airlines to have equal access to the best information on security risks.

“I think more could have been done to share the information and intelligence to ensure that the operation of aircraft was safe over that path,” he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“Some airlines were not flying over that part of Ukraine because they had the assessment and the security information to say that wasn’t an appropriate thing to do.”

Qantas does not typically fly over Ukraine, and weeks before the MH17 disaster decided it would not based on the information it had, Mr Joyce said.

The airline continuously assesses safety risks on its flight paths, he said, and its route between Dubai and London that passes over the Middle East will be shifted if necessary.

“If there was a problem and it it does turn into a problem, Qantas will not be flying aircraft through that airspace, but the information that we have is it is safe to do so,” Joyce said.

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