New Website to Keep Civilian Planes From Harm in Conflict Zones

The International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] has launched a new centralized repository of information on the flying risks over zones of conflict, which is intended to be supplied with information from the officials of the UN's 191 member states.

"This centralized repository is meant to enhance the existing global framework whereby each State is responsible for assessing risks to civil aviation in their airspace, and for making that information promptly available to other States and airlines," ICAO’s Council President, Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu said in a statement.

"But while it does not alter these essential State responsibilities, it very much does respond to the strong international consensus we have seen around the proposal that the safety of our worldwide network would benefit from greater information sharing on conflict zone risks."

States are currently obliged to assess and notify civil aviation of conflict zone risks in their territories by the terms of the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation, which established the ICAO under the auspices of the United Nations in 1944. The ICAO is a specialized UN agency tasked with coordinating and regulating international air travel, as well as setting rules of airspace, aircraft registration and safety.

The institution of the repository was one of the main recommendations made by the ICAO’s conflict zone task force convened during 2014, a call which was echoed by delegates at the organization's 2015 High Level Safety Conference in February. The conference brought together aviation experts and decision makers to discuss safety issues in the wake of the July 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, and the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur in March 2014.

As well as the online conflict zone repository proposal, participants at the conference made the recommendation to adopt a 15-minute aircraft tracking standard that "will be an important first step in providing a foundation for global flight tracking." and a precursor to the implementation of the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System [GADSS]. In accordance with GADSS, planes will have to report their location every 15 minutes of the flight under normal flying conditions, and in abnormal conditions send a minute by minute update of their location.