A senior executive at troubled Malaysia Airlines has called for the creation of a new organisation to decide which flight paths are safe in the wake of the MH17 tragedy in Ukraine.
Hugh Dunleavy, the company's commercial director, said that individual airlines could not be expected to make decisions on which volatile regions are secure to fly over.
Despite flying over a conflict zone, MH17's flight path had been approved by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the Ukrainian authorities and the European airspace service provider Eurocontrol, Mr Dunleavy said.
Writing in Britain's Sunday Telegraph, he called for airlines and existing aviation bodies to "review existing processes and set more stringent standards".
"Ultimately, we need one body to be the arbiter of where we can fly," he said.
"This tragedy has taught us that despite following the guidelines and advice set out by the governing bodies, the skies above certain territories are simply not safe.
"MH17 has shown us that airlines can no longer rely on existing industry bodies for this information."
He said that airlines were businesses and should no longer bear the responsibility of deeming flight paths safe or unsafe.
"It is not reasonable for us to assess all of the issues going on in all of the regions in the world, and determine a safe flight path," he said.
"For the sake of passenger and crew safety we need to insist on a higher level of authority."
Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is widely believed to have been brought down by a surface-to-air missile fired by pro-Russian separatists fighting against the Ukrainian government, killing all 298 people on board.
The disaster on July 17 was the second major crisis involving the airline this year after flight MH370 went missing on March 8 and is believed to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
Mr Dunleavy said that after these two disasters, the carrier is working on "creating an airline fit for purpose in a new era".
"As a company, Malaysia Airlines has twice been in a period of mourning this year, but we will eventually overcome this tragedy and emerge stronger," he said.
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