After Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was shot down while flying over Ukraine and crashed, killing 298 passengers and crew in July 2014, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), among other actions, set up a Conflict Zone Information Repository as a means to share relevant information among states and air carriers. The repository, accessible via ICAO’s website, is searchable by countries affected by conflict and includes notices to airmen (NOTAMs) and aeronautical information circulars (AICs) that affect those states, but that, in most cases, are issued by other countries. For example, a recent search of the repository showed three NOTAMs issued about Saudi Arabia — two by Saudi Arabia itself and one by Germany. In another example, the repository returned three NOTAMs, issued by the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, about Libya, and an AIC issued by France.
The European Task Force on Conflict Zones has concluded that more needs to be done. In a report …
