Canada’s Safer Skies initiative was launched as a direct response to the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS 752 on January 8, 2020, shortly after take-off from Tehran that resulted in the loss of 176 lives.

At a recent meeting on the issue, global aviation body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano advised attendees that Canada’s Safer Skies project is essential to preventing future shooting downs of civilian aircraft, but states must increase the political fervour surrounding implementation and knowledge sharing.

Canada’s Safer Skies initiative was launched as a direct response to the shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS 752, bound for Kyiv on January 8, 2020, shortly after take-off from Tehran, which resulted in the loss of 176 lives. In order to advance towards preventative conflict zone risk management practices, says a press statement issued by ICAO, the governments of Canada and the Netherlands organised the Third Safer Skies Forum on June 5 and 6 in Rotterdam and The Hague.

“At this event we have an exceptional and crucially important opportunity to ramp up the political momentum and enhance exchanges of technical expertise fostering the global cooperation that will underpin the implementation of the Safer Skies initiative,” says Sciacchitano.

ICAO adds that ministers, diplomats, and other representatives from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Kenya, Morocco, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, and the United States attended the event. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA), and the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers’ Associations (IFATCA) were present, serving as representatives for operators and labour.

“The downing of an aircraft with innocent passengers and crew on board is absolutely unacceptable, the result of ineffective civil-military coordination, limited exchange of information, including a lack of intelligence information, and ultimately human error. Commitment is of course key to the prevention of a similar event from ever happening again, the shooting down of flight PS 752 was very regrettably not the first or only instance of its kind,” says Sciacchitano.

The statement adds that the President also focussed on the high importance ICAO places on addressing the risks that conflict zones pose to civil aviation, which must be assessed by both States and operators, and expressed the organisation’s “full and unwavering” support for their activities in this area.

The initiative has been welcomed and appreciated by the ICAO Council and subsequently endorsed by the ICAO Assembly, it says. ICAO’s guidance to states and operators has evolved continuously following the recommendations of States following their investigations into the series of events that have occurred.

Following these proposals, the ICAO Accident Investigation Panel has been working on concerns expressed about investigations on the downing of aircraft, particularly when the independence of the Accident Investigation Authority and credibility of the investigation could be challenged. Most recently, the 41st Session of the ICAO Assembly, which took place in September and October 2022, also resulted in States requesting a prioritised review of the Risk Assessment Manual, the statement adds.