The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) met in Montreal on Tuesday 29th July with the directors general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airports Council International (ACI) and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), to discuss the risks of conflict zones to civil aviation.
Following the meeting, the organisations jointly expressed their strong condemnation of the use of weapons against civil aviation, and said: "While aviation is the safest form of transport, the MH17 incident has raised troubling concerns with respect to civilian aircraft operating to, from and over conflict zones."
The ICAO reminded member states that they have a responsibility to address potential risks to civil aviation in their airspace, but also announced that it would be forming a taskforce comprising state and industry experts to address security aspects for the challenge, in particular the collection and dissemination of information.
ICAO will also organise a high-level safety conference with all of its 191 member states in February 2015.
