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East Ukraine closed for air flights — Eurocontrol

After the Malaysia Airlines Boeing crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, international airlines are urgently changing their flight routes

LONDON, July 18. /ITAR-TASS/. The air space over Ukraine is closed temporarily over the crash of the Malaysian passenger airliner Boeing 777, Director of the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation Eurocontrol Luc Tytgat said in an interview with British radio station BBC. He noted that four passenger airliners were flying over south-east Ukraine at the moment of the Boeing 777 crash.

Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 passenger airliner on the way from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala-Lumpur crashed in east Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Thursday. All 298 passengers and crewmembers died in the air crash.

After the tragedy international airlines are urgently changing their flight routes. From the start of current crisis in eastern Ukraine four airlines, namely Singapore Airlines, Finland’s Finnair and South Korean air companies Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines have halted their flights over the territory swept by the conflict. Another six airlines have taken the same decision over the past day.

US air companies decided to cancel voluntarily flights in the air space near the Russian-Ukrainian border. US Federal Aviation Administration stated about this decision after consultations with air carriers in the country. Chinese Civil Aviation Administration instructed Chinese airplanes to avoid flights over the dangerous zone, Aeroflot has changed its flight schedule, cancelling several flights to Ukrainian cities of Kiev and Odessa. Malaysia Airlines, Vietnamese domestic air carrier and Dutch airline KLM will also make flights on alternative routes.