Due to tension in Middle East, DGCA asks airlines to reroute flights to ensure passenger safety

Hours after a Ukrainian plane with 176 people on-board crashed near Tehran in Iran, aviation regulator DGCA on Wednesday asked Indian airlines to take all precautions in the airspace over Iran, Iraq, Gulf of Oman and waters of the Persian Gulf, and reroute their flights to ensure safety of passengers.

The security situation in the Middle East region is also tense because of Iran's missile strikes against two US military bases in Iraq on Wednesday. The missile strikes were in retaliation to the killing of top Iranian commander General Qassem Soleimani by the United States on January 3.

A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said on Wednesday evening, "In view of the impending tension in the Middle East, all air operators are directed to take appropriate precautionary measures including rerouting of their flights in order to ensure complete safety of passengers."
"We are monitoring the situation closely and in case of a contingency, there might be slight time changes in our operations, which will be proactively communicated to our passengers through our regular channels," it added
"Tehran airport is anything but a simple one. Therefore, for several years UIA has been using this airport to conduct training on Boeing 737 aircraft aimed at evaluating pilots' proficiency and ability to act in emergency cases," noted Ihor Sosnovsky, Vice President, Operations, UIA