Commercial Flights Rerouted Away From Middle East Amid U.S. and Iran Tensions

Tensions between the United States and Iran have led commercial airlines to reroute flights throughout the Middle East.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has prohibited American pilots and carriers from flying in both Iranian and Iraqi airspace, as well as in select areas of the Persian Gulf.

The fear, the FAA said, is the “potential for miscalculation or mis-identification” of a civilian aircraft being confused for aircrafts engaging in armed conflict, the AP reported. The “heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the Middle East,” the FAA said, “present an inadvertent risk to U.S. civil aviation operations.”

A total of167 passengers and nine crew members died in the crash, which happened hours after Iran hadlaunched missiles at two military bases in Iraqthat house U.S. troops in response toPresident Donald Trump’s ordered airstrike in Iraqthat killed the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani.

Redirecting commercial flights away from that airspace (as is being done now) is not an atypical response during times like these,Dubai-based aviation consultantt Mark Martin told the AP.

“In a war situation, the first casualty is always air transport,” Martin said, using airline bankruptcies during the Persian Gulf and Yugoslav wars as an example.

Martin estimate to the AP that at least 500 commercial flights fly through Iranian and Iraqi airspace daily.

The U.S. isn’t the only nation rerouting planes.

Even the Russian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, issued an official recommendation for all Russian airlines to avoid flying over Iran, Iraq, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman “due to existing risks for the safety of international civil flights,” the AP reported.

source: people.com