Emirates calls for airline summit following MH17 attack
Emirates is calling for an international meeting of airlines to rethink the threat of regional conflicts following the attack on Malaysia Airlines MH17.
The airline’s president Tim Clark told Reuters that the airline industry needed to respond as an entite and suggested IATA could call an international conference.
He said: "The international airline community needs to respond as an entity, saying this is absolutely not acceptable and outrageous, and that it won’t tolerate being targeted in internecine regional conflicts that have nothing to do with airlines.
"If you go East to West or vice-versa between Europe and Asia, you are likely to run into areas of conflict.
"We have traditionally been able to manage this. Tripoli and Kabul were attacked, Karachi was attacked and we have protocols and contingencies and procedures to deal with this," he said.
"That was up until three days ago. Now I think there will have to be new protocols and it will be up to ICAO and IATA and the aviation community to sort out what the protocols have to be."
He said the International Air Transport Association could call an international conference to see what changes need to made in the way the industry tackles regional instability.
Kevin Hiatt, senior vice president of Safety and Flight Operations at IATA said: "At this time, the most urgent issues need to be addressed by governments.
"To assist in that process, we are working with ICAO in consultation with our members. There are two immediate priorities. The first is to reunite the bodies of the victims with their families in a humane way. The second is to set the parameters for a successful investigation that will provide clarity in the issues going forward.
"Everyone connected with air transport wants to make sure that such a tragedy is not repeated. To realize that goal we need to gather the best advice and broadest knowledge possible. Industry experts are already mobilized and engaged at a global level.
"Once we are clear on the facts and we have expert analysis to guide us, the engagement will move to a higher level of global dialogue. What format that will take will need to first be informed by the findings."
Diane
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