World aviation officials will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the downing of Flight MH17 over Ukraine, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) announced Friday.
The “special high-level meeting” will be held Tuesday, according to a statement, and will also cover “appropriate actions to be pursued in order to more effectively mitigate potential risks to civil aviation arising from conflict zones.”
The Malaysia Airlines plane was blown out of the sky last week by what is believed to be a surface-to-air missile, killing 298 passengers and crew and dramatically raising the stakes in Ukraine’s bloody three-month conflict.
Kiev has blamed the rebels, citing photographs of anti-aircraft missile systems being moved from rebel-held territory into Russia less than 12 hours after the crash, and an intercepted call between an insurgent commander and a Russian intelligence officer.
The ICAO meeting will include the head of the ICAO Council Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu and Secretary General Raymond Benjamin, IATA Director General Tony Tyler, ACI Director General Angela Gittens and Jeff Poole, head of CANSO.