Rosaviatsiya: Ukrainian air traffic controller guided Malaysia Airlines flight
MOSCOW. July 18 (Interfax) - The Malaysia Airlines Boeing, which crashed in the Donetsk region on Thursday, had been guided by Ukrainian air traffic controllers, according to Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) head Alexander Neradko.
"The crew did not make contact with an air traffic controller in Rostov center. When the plane disappeared from the radar screen it was the responsibility of an air traffic controller of the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk air traffic control center, and Ukraine was in charge of air traffic safety in that area," he said in a program aired by the television channel Rossiya 24.
"Dnipropetrovsk was supposed to guide [the plane] to the border and hand over control to a specialist of the Rostov air traffic control center at a mandatory flight reporting point," Neradko said.
EUROCONTROL, an agency supervising air traffic in Europe, said earlier, "According to our information, the aircraft was flying at Flight Level 330 (approximately 10,000 metres/33,000 feet) when it disappeared from radar. This route had been closed by the Ukrainian authorities from the ground to flight level 320 but was open at the level at which the aircraft was flying."
"Since the crash, the Ukrainian authorities have informed EUROCONTROL of the closure of all airspace in Eastern Ukraine (Dnipropetrovsk Flight Information Region). All flight plans that are filed using these routes are now being rejected by EUROCONTROL. The routes will remain closed until further notice," says the report posted on the EUROCONTROL website.
