The destruction of the Malaysia Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flight in July 2014 haunts air transport. The Malaysian Boeing 777 was shot down in flight by a missile in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine on the Russian border, killing 298 people.
So that such a tragedy does not happen again, the international civil authorities recommend avoiding overflights of conflict regions or even prohibit it. These measures are reinforced by insurers’ request to airlines to cease all flights in Ukrainian airspace until the situation stabilizes.
The company paid the price for this ban on overflights of Ukraine, and was asked by insurance companies to park its aircraft within the borders of the European Union. One of its Madeira-Kiev flights was even diverted to Moldova, from where the 180 passengers continued the last 500 kilometers of their journey by coach.
The security department constantly monitors the geopolitical situation in the world. It can even, in conjunction with the CCO (Operations Control Center at Roissy-CDG in permanent contact with the flights in progress), divert an aircraft or ask it to turn around, if the situation at destination, or en route , was to deteriorate.
This analysis of threats in the world is based on its own data, provided by its ports of call and delegations, and that which it exchanges with other airlines, but also from government sources (Quai d’Orsay), or intelligence services. The “local climate” in certain African or South American countries is watched like milk on the fire.