Tehran, IRAN
Iran's aviation authority said it would not hand over to
Americans the recovered black boxes of a Boeing 737 that crashed Wednesday,
killing all 176 passengers and crew.
"We will not give
the black boxes to the manufacturer (Boeing) and the Americans," Iran
Civil Aviation Organisation head Ali Abedzadeh said, quoted by Mehr news
agency.
This comes as a growing
number of airlines said Wednesday they were avoiding Iranian and Iraqi airspace
for flights to the region after Tehran fired ballistic missiles against bases
housing US troops in Iraq.
"As a precautionary
measure and following news of air strikes underway, Air France has decided to
suspend until further notice all flights through Iranian and Iraqi
airspace," an Air France spokesman told AFP.
Iran launched a series
of missiles at bases housing US troops in the early hours, officials in
Washington and Tehran said.
Iran's supreme leader
called the attacks a "slap in the face" after a US drone strike
killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani near Baghdad international
airport last week.
Shortly after the
missile attacks, the US Federal Aviation Administration said it was banning
US-registered carriers from flying over Iraq, Iran and the Gulf.
Its Russian
counterpart, the Federal Air Transport Agency, said it was recommending
airlines avoid the air space over Iran, Iraq and the Persian and Oman Gulfs
"due to information about current risks for safety of international
passenger flights".
The region is an
important corridor for flights travelling between Europe and Asia, although
planes can be rerouted.
A KLM spokesman told
AFP: "Until further notice, KLM has no flights over Iranian or Iraqi
airspace. All flights to different Southeast Asian destinations and other
destinations in the Middle East will be flown through alternative routes."
In Germany, Lufthansa
said it had cancelled its daily flight to Tehran in addition to halting
overflights of Iran and Iraq until further notice.
It added that
Saturday's twice-weekly service to northern Iraqi city of Erbil would also not
depart.
Poland's national
airline LOT had already announced at the weekend that its regular flights in
the region were being diverted to keep them out of Iranian airspace.
UAE carriers Emirates
Airline and low-cost Flydubai said they had cancelled flights to Baghdad for
"operational reasons".
Australia's Qantas said
one of its London-Perth flights would be rerouted, with the other already
flying an alternative route.
"We’re adjusting
our flight paths over the Middle East to avoid the airspace over Iraq and Iran
until further notice," said a spokesman.
Both Singapore Airlines
and Malaysia Airlines said they would divert flights from Iranian airspace.
Vietnam Airlines said
it will make "appropriate adjustments" of routes to avoid areas of
potential instability although its regular flight paths to Europe do not pass
over Iran and Iraq.
Japanese airlines ANA
and JAL, and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific said their planes do not fly
through airspace affected by latest flare-up.
Air India spokesman
Dhananjay Kumar said the airline's carriers Air India and Air India Express
would "temporarily" be rerouted to avoid Iran. - AFP
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