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Emirates CEO calls for international meeting of airlines over Malaysian Boeing crash

Tim Clark says the International Air Transport Association may organize an international conference of airlines dedicated to reviewing approaches to air safety in unstable regions

Emirates CEO Tim Clark EPA/ALI HAIDER

Emirates CEO Tim Clark

© EPA/ALI HAIDER

LONDON, July 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Chief executive of Emirates has called for an international meeting of airlines to develop a unified position on the Malaysian Boeing crash in the east of Ukraine that killed 298 people, Reuters reported.

“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,” Clark said.

Clark noted that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) may organize an international conference of airlines dedicated to reviewing approaches to air safety in unstable regions.

On July 17, Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 777 on Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine's Donetsk region, where fighting between Ukrainian government forces and local defenders (militia) had been continuing. All the 298 people on board died. Aboard the liner were citizens of Malaysia, the Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand.

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