Airlines re-route flights away from Iranian airspace after US drone shot down
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Multiple commercial airlines have begun re-routing flights to avoid Iranian airspace following Tehran's decision to shoot down a US surveillance drone on Thursday.
After the incident, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) barred its carriers from flying over Iranian-controlled areas until further notice, saying, "There were numerous civil aviation aircraft operating in the area at the time of the intercept."
Since then, international Airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas Airways Ltd, Singapore Airlines Ltd, Germany’s Lufthansa, British Airways, KLM, Gulf Air, Etihad Airways, and Emirates Airlines have started re-routing flights or have said they were taking measures to develop contingency plans to do so, reported Reuters.
Iran insists that they destroyed the $130 million US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk drone with a surface-to-air missile while it was over Iranian territory, but US officials say it was instead flying over international waters.
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The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) later displayed what they said were pieces of the drone
Although US President Donald Trump issued a firm warning shortly after the incident, tweeting, "Iran made a very big mistake," he later seemed to be diminishing Iran’s responsibility in comments made during a press briefing.
He then claimed to have canceled a response strike at the last minute because the resulting deaths would have been disproportional to the drone attack, which caused no casualties.
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Tehran, too, appeared to be attempting to show restraint.
On Friday, the chief of the Aerospace Force of the IRGC told Iranian media, "At the same time that the spy drone was intercepted, another spy plane by the name of P-8 was flying close to it and had 35 passengers."
"We could have downed it," he said, "but we did not do this."
Editing by John J. Catherine