The British Airline Pilots’ Association (Balpa) has demanded urgent action to avoid a repeat of the Malaysia Airlines tragedy over Ukraine.
Balpa warned the current system of risk assessment for pilots plotting flight plans “can give an illusion of safety but is vulnerable to all sorts of influences, including commercial pressure”.
The association called on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to take a greater leadership role and suggested the organisation needs tougher powers.
ICAO is a United Nations body responsible for international coordination of air safety.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was brought down over the Ukraine last week after apparently being hit by a missile at 33,000 feet.
Ukraine air traffic authorities had closed air space up to 32,000 feet over the eastern part of the country.
Balpa general secretary Jim McAuslan said: “Individual pilots looking at their flight plans need to have absolute confidence.
“The process behind the choice of air space routing is based on a risk assessment, by a country’s national aviation security services in the advice they give to airlines, and by the airline in how they assess this advice.
“This risk assessment approach can give an illusion of safety but it is vulnerable to all sorts of influences, including commercial pressure.
“So it is not surprising that there are differences in the way this risk is assessed by different airlines.”
McAuslan said: “That is not good enough. Passengers and pilots want a uniform level of safety, not one that is decided in secret.”
He insisted: “While the ultimate responsibility for last week’s murders lies with the people who apparently directed a missile at a peaceful civil airliner, this should not prevent us looking at the failures that led to that outcome; failures that could easily be repeated.
“ICAO’s purpose should be to lead where national authorities cannot and it should have the tools to do that.
“The problem of the absence of clear international co-ordination to avoid operations above eastern Ukraine has become tragically obvious.
“To avoid a repeat, ICAO should be better resourced and enabled to declare airspace unsafe.”