European flights avoid Ukraine airspace

Flight from European countries are being rerouted to avoid the airspace above the conflict zone in Ukraine, where a Malaysian Airlines flight with 295 passengers crashed on Thursday.

Flights from European countries are being rerouted to avoid the airspace above the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, while experts said a ‘sophisticated system’ was needed to bring down an aircraft at the height at which Malaysian Airlines MH17 was flying.

Britain’s Department of Transport said in a statement: "Flights already airborne are being routed around the area by air traffic control in the region. Pilots around the world have been advised to plan routes that avoid the area by Eurocontrol, the European organisation for the safety of air navigation”.

Air France and the German airlines Lufthansa also announced rerouting flights to avoid the area.

Lufthansa said it had decided to "fly a wide detour around east Ukrainian airspace with immediate effect", and added that the decision would affect four of its flights on Thursday. "The safety of our passengers is our top priority," a spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said it would re-route "a small number" of its flights following the incident, but added that "we do not anticipate significant delays and are planning for increased flight lengths on impacted flights of approximately 15 minutes."

Peter Felsted, editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said sophisticated weaponry would have been needed to take down a flight travelling at an altitude of 10,000m (33,000ft). He told the BBC: "Those kind of systems are obviously in the Ukrainian inventory as much as the Russian inventory, but I would say it's much less likely that the Ukrainian rebels who would have had control of one of these systems."

There were unconfirmed reports that there were 11 British citizens on the flight.

A statement from 10 Downing Street said: “British officials were due to meet this evening to take stock of the Malaysian air disaster, including the possibility that British nationals were on board. It is likely that meeting will be largely practical and an assessment of what is known, as opposed to any ministerial political action”.