SriLankan gets ‘no fly’ warning over conflict zones
SriLankan Airlines has been advised to steer clear of conflict zones when flying to Europe via West Asian destinations as per international regulations, a top government official said on Friday.In this respect the national carrier would not fly across the air space of countries currently in conflict due to the risk involved in doing so, Civil Aviation Director General H.M.C. Nimalsiri told the Business Times at his office in Colombo.
“SriLankan Airlines policy is that we always avoid any conflict zones,” SriLankan Airlines spokesman Deepal Perera said when asked to comment.
He said that they had stopped flying over Ukraine since March 2014 and now continue to avoid flying over countries currently in conflict like Syria, Iraq and similar states.Meanwhile Mr. Nimalsiri, commenting on the attacks recently purported to have been carried out by the Islamic militant group ISIS in Paris, France, said that since they had limited information they were not certain of how to react to the this in view of flights to this destination.He noted that currently there is a high security threat and that last week the National Civil Aviation Security Committee headed by Defence Ministry Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi met with the Police and the Commanders of the three defence forces.
It was discussed that they should have constant interaction and adjust the security level at the airport as required, Mr. Nimalsiri explained.
He pointed out that however, it was understood that right now there was adequate security at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and onboard flights.But in the wake of the growing concerns of attacks on airlines and the increasing threat of terror attacks he said, “We will be mindful of the growing threat.” Mr. Nimalsiri noted that these terror threats were not new to Sri Lankan authorities and that they had taken adequate precautions already and pointed out “our security measures are in place.”
However, he observed that there was an emerging threat in terms of the types of attacks carried out like the “can bomb” which ISIS had said they had used to bomb one plane. But the DG pointed out that it was uncertain whether this was stated to divert the ongoing investigations into the mode of how the attack was carried out.In this respect, the “security aspect of aviation needs to be re-looked at international level,” Mr. Nimalsiri said adding that however, “We can assure there is no slightest possibility of our airlines being attacked within Sri Lanka.”