The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned US airlines from flying over parts of Iran following the shooting down of a US Navy drone.
The FAA’s Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) published on Thursday (US time) said flights were not permitted in the overwater area of the Tehran Flight Information Region, which covered the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, until further notice.
This was due to “heightened military activities and increased political tensions in the region that presented an “inadvertent risk to US civil aviation operations and potential for miscalculation or mis-identification.
“The risk to US civil aviation is demonstrated by the Iranian surface-to-air missile shoot down of a US unmanned aircraft system on June 19 2019 while it was operating in the vicinity of civil air routes above the Gulf of Oman,” the NOTAM said.
On Thursday (US time), the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said Iran had shot down a US Navy Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Block 10 Global Hawk unmanned maritime ISR air vehicle that was flying in international airspace off the Iranian coast.
“This was an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset in international airspace,” CENTCOM said.
Read the article in Australian Aviation.