TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) on Friday gave assurances to airlines about the safety of the country’s airspace a day after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a warning to passenger planes overflying above the country.
“Negotiations have been held with the EASA and some European countries to alleviate [their] concerns and reassure [them about] the Iranian airspace,” CAO Deputy for Aviation and International Affairs, Morteza Dehqan, said on Friday.
In its alert on Thursday, the EASA said there is “a risk of misidentification of civil aircraft” in Iran “due to the presence of various advanced air-defense systems.”
The EASA advised airlines to be “cautious”, saying “the risk to operations is assessed to be HIGH for flight levels below 250,” or 25,000 feet (7,600 meters).
It said the recommendation was valid until Jan. 16, 2021.
However, Dehqan said the EASA’s new NOTAM is an extension of its previous notice for Iran and has not been changed in the text.
On January 8, Iran mistakenly shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 shortly after take-off from Tehran’s main airport, killing all 176 aboard.
In a report last week, the CAO said that the misalignment of an air defense unit’s radar system was the key “human error” that led to the accidental downing of the Ukrainian passenger plane.
This error “initiated a hazard chain” that saw further errors committed in the minutes before the plane was shot down, said the CAO.
The incident took place at a time of heightened US-Iranian tensions.
Tehran’s air defenses had been on high alert at the time the jet was downed in case the US retaliated against Iranian missile strikes hours earlier on American military bases stationed in Iraq.
Those strikes were carried out in response to the assassination of a top Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport.
AFP contributed to this story.
- source : Iran Daily, Irannews
