Singapore Airlines Flight Path Over Ukraine (MH 17)

There has been a lot of talk in the social media that some airlines have been using Ukrainian airspace, even though there have been warnings.  Technically, the airspace above 32,000 feet was not closed, as clarified by IATA.

However, warnings have been given out that there has been anti-air activity over the region and some airlines had decided not to fly over the airspace from some months ago.

Both Malaysian Airlines and Singapore Airlines continued to use this dangerous airspace, along with a few other airlines. This scathing report is worth a read.
http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/07/18/mh17-malaysia-airlines%E2%80%99-hideous-failure-of-duty-of-care-cost-hundreds-their-lives/

Key observations:
"Eleven minutes after MH17 took off for KL, a Singapore Airlines A380 took off from Paris, also destined to traverse the same airspace, en route to Singapore. However at the moment MH17 was shot out of the sky, the Paris departure SQ333 was further north and well to the west of the Malaysian flight. It wouldn’t have seen its demise. "

"About 32 minutes after MH17 left Amsterdam, a Singapore Airlines 777-200ER, operating as SQ351, took off from Copenhagen bound for Singapore via the same skies, above a war zone in which two other aircraft had been shot down earlier this week — one a Ukrainian military cargo plane and the other one of its jet fighters"

The above are facts.  The article goes on to accuse airlines like the flag carriers of Malaysia and Singapore of failing in the duty of care.  This, of course, is another matter altogether.

However, it is clear that the plane that was shot down could well have been this.  Let's not deny that fact.

SQ has avoided answering all questions directly on this issue.  All SQ has said was this (official Twitter Page) -

Singapore Airlines @SingaporeAir · Jul 17

Customers may wish to note that Singapore Airlines flights are not using Ukraine airspace.

Notice, they are not.  SQ didn't say they were not.  We flew back from London in June.  Here is a video I took.  If you go to 11:40 of the video, you will see that we flew right over Ukraine, likely over all the areas in conflict too.  I am thankful just to be alive!


Our heart goes out to all the relative and loved ones of the victims of MH 17.
The pain and sorrow must be unspeakable.

In this article, it was revealed that SIA had used the same flight path 75 times in the past week leading up to the MAS plane being shot down -
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/sia-used-same-mh17-flight-path-75-times-065907006.html

MH 17 Crash Images here.