Airline pilots, crews voice concerns about Middle East routes

Airline pilots, crews voice concerns about Middle East routes
Wizz Air said safety is its top priority and it had carried out detailed risk assessments before resuming flights over Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries (AFP)
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Updated 11 December 2024
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Airline pilots, crews voice concerns about Middle East routes

Airline pilots, crews voice concerns about Middle East routes
  • Some pilots, crew unions worry about certain Middle Eastern flight routes — letters to airlines, regulators
  • The safety debate about flying over the region is playing out in Europe largely because pilots there are protected by unions, unlike other parts of the world

LONDON: In late September, an experienced pilot at low-cost European airline Wizz Air felt anxious after learning his plane would fly over Iraq at night amid mounting tensions between nearby Iran and Israel.
He decided to query the decision since just a week earlier the airline had deemed the route unsafe. In response, Wizz Air’s flight operations team told him the airway was now considered secure and he had to fly it, without giving further explanation, the pilot said.
“I wasn’t really happy with it,” the pilot, who requested anonymity from fear he could lose his job, told Reuters. Days later, Iraq closed its airspace when Iran fired missiles on Oct. 1 at Israel. “It confirmed my suspicion that it wasn’t safe.”
In response to Reuters’ queries, Wizz Air said safety is its top priority and it had carried out detailed risk assessments before resuming flights over Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries.
Reuters spoke to four pilots, three cabin crew members, three flight security experts and two airline executives about growing safety concerns in the European air industry due to escalating tensions in the Middle East following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023, that prompted the war in Gaza.
The Middle East is a key air corridor for planes heading to India, South-East Asia and Australia and last year was criss-crossed daily by 1,400 flights to and from Europe, Eurocontrol data show.
The safety debate about flying over the region is playing out in Europe largely because pilots there are protected by unions, unlike other parts of the world.
Reuters reviewed nine unpublished letters from four European unions representing pilots and crews that expressed worries about air safety over Middle Eastern countries. The letters were sent to Wizz Air, Ryanair, airBaltic, the European Commission and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) between June and August.
“No one should be forced to work in such a hazardous environment and no commercial interests should outweigh the safety and well-being of those on board,” read a letter, addressed to EASA and the European Commission from Romanian flight crew union FPU Romania, dated Aug. 26.
In other letters, staff called on airlines to be more transparent about their decisions on routes and demanded the right to refuse to fly a dangerous route.
There have been no fatalities or accidents impacting commercial aviation tied to the escalation of tensions in the Middle East since the war in Gaza erupted last year.
Air France opened an internal investigation after one of its commercial planes flew over Iraq on Oct. 1 during Tehran’s missile attack on Israel. On that occasion, airlines scrambled to divert dozens of planes heading toward the affected areas in the Middle East.
The ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran and the abrupt ousting of President Bashar Assad by Syrian rebels at the weekend have raised concerns of further insecurity in the region.
The use of missiles in the region has revived memories of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 en route from Tehran in 2020.
Being accidentally shot-down in the chaos of war is the top worry, three pilots and two aviation safety experts told Reuters, along with the risk of an emergency landing.
While airlines including Lufthansa and KLM no longer fly over Iran, carriers including Etihad, flydubai, Aeroflot and Wizz Air were still crossing the country’s airspace as recently as Dec. 2, data from tracking service FlightRadar24 show.
Some European airlines including Lufthansa and KLM allow crew to opt-out of routes they don’t feel are safe, but others such as Wizz Air, Ryanair and airBaltic don’t.
AirBaltic CEO Martin Gauss said his airline meets an international safety standard that doesn’t need to be adjusted.
“If we start a right of refusal, then where do we stop? the next person feels unhappy overflying Iraqi airspace because there’s tension there?” he told Reuters on Dec. 2 in response to queries about airBaltic flight safety talks with unions.
Ryanair, which intermittently flew to Jordan and Israel until September, said it makes security decisions based on EASA guidance.
“If EASA says it’s safe, then, frankly, thank you, we’re not interested in what the unions or some pilot think,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told Reuters in October, when asked about staff security concerns.
EASA said it has been involved in a number of exchanges with pilots and airlines on route safety in recent months concerning the Middle East, adding that disciplining staff for raising safety concerns would run counter to a “just culture” where employees can voice worries.
Insufficient reassurances
One Abu Dhabi-based Wizz Air pilot told Reuters he was comfortable flying over the conflict-torn region as he believes the industry has a very high safety standard.
But for some pilots and crew members working at budget airlines, the reassurances of the companies are insufficient.
They told Reuters pilots should have more choice in refusing flights over potentially dangerous airspace and requested more information about airline security assessments.
“The fact that Wizz Air sends emails asserting that it’s safe is irrelevant to commercial employees,” read a letter from FPU Romania to Chief Operating Officer Diarmuid O’Conghaile, dated Aug. 12. “Flights into these conflict areas, even if they are rescue missions, should be carried out by military personnel and aircraft, not by commercial crews.”
Mircea Constantin, a former cabin crew member who represents FPU Romania, said Wizz Air never gave a formal response to this letter and similar ones sent earlier this year, but did send security guidance and updates to staff.
A pilot and a cabin crew member, who declined to be named for fear of retaliatory action, said they got warnings from their employers for refusing to fly on Middle Eastern routes or calling in sick.
Congested skies
Last month, 165 missiles were launched in Middle Eastern conflict zones versus just 33 in November 2023, according to the latest available data from Osprey Flight Solutions.
But airspace can only be enforcably restricted if a country chooses to shut it down, as in the case of Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Several airlines have opted to briefly suspend flights to places like Israel when tension rises. Lufthansa and British Airways did so after Iran bombarded Israel on April 13.
But this limits the airspace in use in the already congested Middle Eastern skies.
Choosing to fly over Central Asia or Egypt and Saudi Arabia to avoid Middle Eastern hot spots is also more costly as planes burn more fuel and some countries charge higher overflight fees.
Flying a commercial plane from Singapore to London-Heathrow through Afghanistan and Central Asia, for instance, cost an airline $4,760 in overflight fees, about 50 percent more than a route through the Middle East, according to two Aug. 31 flight plans reviewed by Reuters.
Reuters could not name the airline as the flight plans are not public.
Some private jets are avoiding the most critical areas.
“At the moment, my no-go areas would be the hotspot points: Libya, Israel, Iran, simply because they’re sort of caught up in it all,” said Andy Spencer, a Singapore-based pilot who flies private jets and who previously worked as an airline pilot.
Spencer, who has two decades of experience and flies through the Middle East regularly, said that on a recent flight from Manila to Cuba, he flew from Dubai over Egypt and north through Malta before refueling in Morocco to circumvent Libyan and Israeli airspace.
EASA, regarded by industry experts as the strictest regional safety regulator, issues public bulletins on how to fly safely over conflict zones.
But these aren’t mandatory and every airline decides where to travel based on a patchwork of government notices, third-party security advisers, in-house security teams and information sharing between carriers, leading to divergent policies.
Such intelligence is not usually shared with staff.
The opacity has sown fear and mistrust among pilots, cabin crew and passengers as they question whether their airline has missed something carriers in other countries are aware of, said Otjan de Bruijn, a former head of European pilots union the European Cockpit Association and a pilot for KLM.
“The more information you make available to pilots, the more informed a decision they can make,” said Spencer, who is also an operations specialist at flight advisory body OPSGROUP, which offers independent operational advice to the aviation industry.
When Gulf players like Etihad, Emirates or flydubai suddenly stop flying over Iran or Iraq, the industry sees it as a reliable indicator of risk, pilots and security sources said, as these airlines can have access to detailed intelligence from their governments.
Flydubai told Reuters it operates within airspace and airways in the region that are approved by Dubai’s General Civil Aviation Authority. Emirates said it continuously monitors all routings, adjusting as required and would never operate a flight unless it was safe to do so. Etihad said it only operates through approved airspace.
Passenger rights groups are also asking for travelers to receive more information.
“If passengers decline to take flights over conflict zones, airlines would be disinclined to continue such flights,” said Paul Hudson, the head of US-based passenger group Flyers Rights. “And passengers who take such flights would do so informed of the risks.”


Moroccan activist jailed for criticism of earthquake response

Moroccan activist jailed for criticism of earthquake response
Updated 13 sec ago
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Moroccan activist jailed for criticism of earthquake response

Moroccan activist jailed for criticism of earthquake response
  • El Haouz province, to the south of Marrakech, was one of the areas hit hardest by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the region in September 2023, killing close to 3,000 people and wounding 5,600

RABAT: A Moroccan activist who criticized the kingdom’s response to a major 2023 earthquake was jailed for three months on Monday for defamation, according to his defense team.
Said Ait Mahdi, who leads a group for victims of the El Haouz earthquake and has been in detention since December 23, was tried for “defamation, insult and the publication of false allegations aimed at infringing on privacy.”
Three other accused, also members of the group, were charged with “insulting public officials.”
“The Court of First Instance of Marrakech condemned Said Ait Mahdi to three months in prison and acquitted three others,” one of their lawyers, Mohamed Nouini, told AFP.
Ait Mahdi was also ordered to pay 10,000 dirhams ($1,000) in damages to each of the civil parties, Nouini said, adding that he would appeal the verdict.
According to the lawyer, the case was based on “complaints from local officials following social media posts they considered offensive.”
El Haouz province, to the south of Marrakech, was one of the areas hit hardest by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the region in September 2023, killing close to 3,000 people and wounding 5,600.
It also destroyed around 60,000 homes in the High Atlas mountains, forcing many families to live in tents through the winter.
Ait Mahdi’s group has campaigned for faster reconstruction and more aid to those affected.
The Moroccan authorities said in December they had issued 57,000 reconstruction permits and that more than 35,000 homes had been or were in the process of being rebuilt.
The authorities have put in place an $11 billion, five-year reconstruction and development plan for the six provinces hit by the disaster.


Israel’s ambassador to UN calls on Security Council to thwart Hezbollah attempts to rearm

Israel’s ambassador to UN calls on Security Council to thwart Hezbollah attempts to rearm
Updated 4 min 29 sec ago
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Israel’s ambassador to UN calls on Security Council to thwart Hezbollah attempts to rearm

Israel’s ambassador to UN calls on Security Council to thwart Hezbollah attempts to rearm
  • Israeli authorities say continuing extensive presence of Hezbollah weaponry in southern Lebanon could cause them to ‘reconsider’ 60-day timeline for withdrawal of forces
  • Israel has violated November ceasefire agreement hundreds of times, killed 33 civilians, blocked citizens from returning home, continues to demolish houses and infrastructure

NEW YORK CITY: Israel’s permanent representative to the UN on Monday expressed concern about what he described as Hezbollah’s ongoing military build-up, accusing the group of attempting to rearm with Iranian assistance.

Danny Danon called on the Lebanese government and the international community to curb “the smuggling of weapons, ammunition and financial support through the Syria-Lebanon border and via air and sea routes.”

The ceasefire deal agreed by Israel and Lebanon in November mandates a 60-day halt to hostilities, during which time Israel must withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah must withdraw its forces to positions north of the Litani River.

In an urgent letter to Algeria’s ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month, Danon said that Israel has detected several attempts to transfer weapons and cash to Hezbollah since the agreement was signed.

“We have witnessed hundreds of violations, including 168 prominent violations,” he wrote in his letter, a copy of which Arab News has seen.

“These violations include: attempts by Hezbollah to rebuild its military infrastructure; presence of Hezbollah activists south of the Litani; attempts to smuggle weapons into Lebanon; attempts to transfer funds intended for Hezbollah; presence of Hezbollah arms north of the Litani.”

The Lebanese Armed Forces have handled some of these complaints, Danon added, but in many instances “Israel had to take action by itself in order to thwart them.”

Hezbollah has halted its rocket attacks against Israel, and Israeli forces have stopped the continual bombing of Beirut suburbs, the eastern Bekaa Valley, and southern Lebanon.

However, both sides accused the other of breaching the ceasefire agreement. Israeli forces remain in the south, where they continue to destroy homes and infrastructure. They have also fired on Lebanese citizens, killed at least 33 Lebanese residents in the past month, and prevented people from returning to their homes.

Under the terms of the agreement, Israel is obliged to withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon within 60 days of Nov. 27. They will initially be replaced by troops from UN Interim Force in Lebanon, followed by Lebanese army forces.

But Israeli authorities have warned that the continued extensive presence of Hezbollah weaponry in the south, and the group’s efforts to rebuild, could cause them to “reconsider” their planned timeline for withdrawal from the country.

Danon welcomed the “encouraging” steps taken by the Lebanese army to dismantle some of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure south of the Litani. But he lamented what he described as the slow pace of the efforts and the lack of capacity to effectively address “the full scope of violations,” in light of the “vast military arsenal found on the ground, that has been erected during the years.”

He warned: “Israel will not tolerate any violation of the ceasefire understandings.

“The existence of terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon that continues to threaten Israeli citizens is unacceptable.”

He called on the UN’s peacekeeping force to work “in a much more robust and effective way” to implement Security Council Resolution 1701 and the recent ceasefire understandings. Resolution 1701 was adopted by the council in 2006 with the aim of resolving the conflict that year between Israel and Hezbollah. It calls for an end to hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, the withdrawal of Hezbollah and other forces from parts of the country south of the Litani River, and the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.

Danon accused UNIFIL of interpreting its mandate “leniently” and of opting not to take “all necessary action to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind.”

He continued: “As a result, UNIFIL allowed the severe restriction of its freedom of movement, which Hezbollah exploited to systematically establish terrorist infrastructure on private property.

“We are concerned that lessons have not been learned, and that today we are witnessing yet another refusal by the force to adapt to Hezbollah’s changing modus operandi.”

Dannon urged the Security Council to monitor and expedite the Lebanese army’s actions on the ground throughout Lebanon, and to insist that “all the terrorist infrastructure present in Lebanon is removed and to make sure that any attempt to smuggle arms to Hezbollah is thwarted.”


Palestinians dedicate a new West Bank olive grove to former US President Jimmy Carter

Palestinians dedicate a new West Bank olive grove to former US President Jimmy Carter
Updated 13 January 2025
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Palestinians dedicate a new West Bank olive grove to former US President Jimmy Carter

Palestinians dedicate a new West Bank olive grove to former US President Jimmy Carter
  • The "Freedom Farm" would be fenced in to protect it from wildlife or extremist Jewish settlers
  • Jimmy Carter was highly critical of Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians

TULKAREM: Palestinian activists and residents planted a grove of 250 olive trees in a northern West Bank town on Monday in memory of the late US President Jimmy Carter, describing him as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause.
The former president’s legacy is “rooted” among Palestinians and across the globe, said Abbas Melhem, executive manager of the Palestinian Farmers Union. Carter was one of the few world leaders who “stood firmly supporting the struggle of the Palestinians for independence and for freedom,” he said.
Under clear winter skies, Palestinian kids helped a handful of adults place the trees into newly dug holes. Melhem said the 10-dunam (2.5-acre) grove in the city of Tulkarem, titled “Freedom Farm,” would be fenced in to protect it from wildlife or extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian olive trees in the past.
The advocacy group for farmers in the West Bank launched the project in collaboration with US-based nonprofit Treedom for Palestine, which plants trees to empower Palestinian farmers.
Carter, who died last month at the age of 100, brokered the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978.
In his later years, Carter was highly critical of Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians, saying conditions in the occupied West Bank amounted to apartheid. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.
“I think planting olive trees that live at least 100 years old like him is a very suitable way to honor his life and his legacy,” said George Zeidan, the Carter Center’s Director in Israel and Palestine.


Israel airstrikes kill family of 5 in Gaza Strip

Israel airstrikes kill family of 5 in Gaza Strip
Updated 13 January 2025
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Israel airstrikes kill family of 5 in Gaza Strip

Israel airstrikes kill family of 5 in Gaza Strip
  • Hamas said on Monday that talks over some core issues for a ceasefire deal in Gaza have made progress, an official in the Palestinian group said

CAIRO: At least 14 Palestinians, including a family of five people, were killed in three separate Israeli airstrikes on Monday in northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.
One strike hit a group of people in the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, killing at least seven people including two children, the Health Ministry’s emergency service said. Two more people were killed in Jabaliya Al-Balad area in northern Gaza, it said.
Another five people were wounded in the strike, it said.
A third strike hit Salaheddin school, which shelters displaced families in the western part of Gaza City.
The strike killed two parents and their three children, according to the Al-Ahly Hospital which received the casualties.
The Israeli military did not have an immediate comment on the strikes.
Hamas said on Monday that talks over some core issues for a ceasefire deal in Gaza have made progress, an official in the Palestinian group said.
“The negotiation over some core issues made progress and we are working to conclude what remains soon,” added the official.
The administration of President Joe Biden sees a possible truce as soon as this week, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Bloomberg News on Monday, adding that there were no guarantees that the parties would agree to such a deal.
Sullivan, speaking to Bloomberg in an interview, added that Biden’s administration has been in contact with incoming President Donald Trump’s team and sought a united front on the issue ahead of Washington’s Jan. 20 transition of power.
“The pressure building here toward the end of President Biden’s term has been considerable,” Sullivan said. “It’s there for the taking.”
Biden leaves office next week after Democrats lost the White House in November’s election, handing back the US government to Trump and his fellow Republicans, who will control both chambers of Congress.
Envoys of both Biden and Trump attended weekend talks on the potential deal.
“The question is now: Can we all collectively seize the moment and make this happen,” Sullivan told Bloomberg, adding that Biden had directed him to work closely with the incoming team.

 


Israel army says intercepted projectile launched from Yemen

Israel army says intercepted projectile launched from Yemen
Updated 13 January 2025
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Israel army says intercepted projectile launched from Yemen

Israel army says intercepted projectile launched from Yemen
  • Israeli military also intercepted a drone launched from Yemen on Monday

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it intercepted a projectile fired from Yemen on Monday before it crossed into Israeli territory, in the latest in a series of ongoing attacks.
“One projectile launched from Yemen was intercepted by the IAF (Israeli air force) prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
Earlier on Monday the military said it had also intercepted a drone in southern Israel that was launched from Yemen.
Since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out in October 2023, the Iran-backed Houthi militants who control swathes of Yemen have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at Israel in what they say is a show of solidarity with the Palestinians.
In retaliation, Israel has struck Houthi targets several times inside Yemen, including in the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa.