{"id":39820,"date":"2019-06-21T10:22:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T10:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39820"},"modified":"2019-06-21T10:22:10","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T10:22:10","slug":"us-bars-civilian-flights-from-area-of-iran-drone-shootdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=39820","title":{"rendered":"US bars civilian flights from area of Iran drone shootdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nTHE HAGUE: Airlines including British Airways, Qantas and KLM said Friday they were suspending flights over the Strait of Hormuz in line with a ban by US authorities, after Iran shot down a US drone.<\/p>\n

\nThe suspensions came after the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) \u201cprohibiting US-registered aircraft from operating over the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe NOTAM was in response to \u201cheightened military activities and increased political tensions that might place commercial flights at risk,\u201d an FAA statement said.<\/p>\n

\nWhile the FAA\u2019s notice applies only to US-registered planes, European companies and Malaysia Airlines followed suit.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur safety and security team are constantly liaising with authorities \u2014 including the likes of the FAA \u2014 around the world as part of their comprehensive risk assessment into every route we operate,\u201d a BA spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\nIn a statement, Dutch carrier KLM said: \u201cSafety is the top priority for KLM.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe incident with the drone is reason not to fly over the Strait of Hormuz for the time being. This is a precautionary measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nEtihad, the Abu Dhabi-based long-haul carrier, said it had \u201ccontingency plans\u201d in place, without elaborating.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe will decide what further action is required after carefully evaluating the FAA directive to US carriers,\u201d the carrier told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

\nIran\u2019s downing of the drone \u2014 which Washington insists was above international waters but Iran says was within its airspace \u2014 has seen tensions between the two countries spike further after a series of attacks on tanker ships blamed by the US on Tehran.<\/p>\n

\nThe Netherlands is still reeling from the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2014, which was hit a missile over eastern Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region where pro-Russian separatist rebels are battling Ukraine forces.<\/p>\n

\nAll 298 people on board were killed, 196 of them Dutch.<\/p>\n

\nInternational investigators on Wednesday charged three Russians and a Ukrainian with murder over the shooting down of the plane, which was traveling between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n

\nThe incident forced airlines on the busy Europe-Asia route to divert flights away from Ukraine airspace.<\/p>\n

\nResponding to the latest tensions over Iran, Malaysia Airlines said it \u201cis closely monitoring the situation and is guided by various assessments including security reports and NOTAMs by respective airspace control authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAustralia\u2019s flag carrier Qantas said it was also taking measures to ensure passenger safety.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe\u2019re adjusting our flight paths over the Middle East to avoid the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman until further notice,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n* with AP<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE HAGUE: Airlines including British Airways, Qantas and KLM said Friday they were suspending flights over the Strait of Hormuz in line with a ban by US authorities, after Iran shot down a US drone. The suspensions came after the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) \u201cprohibiting US-registered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":39821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}