The way aviation authorities assess the risks of flying in dangerous areas has been slammed as 'not good enough' by the British pilots' organisation Balpa.

In the wake of the MH17 tragedy, the group has claimed that risk assessments by aviation authorities and airlines can create 'an illusion of safety' and said they are vulnerable to commercial pressure.

Balpa's general secretary Jim McAuslan called for a uniform approach on safety across the board 'not one that is decided in secret'.

Tragedy: The British pilots' association Balpa has hit out at safety decisions following the MH17 disaster

Danger zones: Air Traffic Flight paths on radar changed over Donetsk in the Ukraine, after the downing of Malyasia Airlines MH17

The comments come after it was revealed that although
airlines are no longer flying over Ukraine, there have been instances
since last week's crash where passenger planes have flown over the
war-torn areas of northern Iraq and Syria.

Strong words: Balpa general secretary Jim McAuslan claimed the way safety decisions are made is 'not good enough'

Mr McAuslan said it was important to look at 'failures' that led to the Malaysia Airlines disaster.

Some
US and European carriers, including the UK's easyJet, are not flying to
Israel today after a rocket landed near Tel Aviv airport.

Balpa
today called for global leadership from the International Civil
Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in all operations in or over areas of
hostility.

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Balpa
said that although ICAO is the UN body responsible for co-ordinating
the safety and order of global aviation, maybe it should have a greater
leadership role and strengthened powers to go with that responsibility.

Mr
McAuslan said: 'Individual pilots looking at their flight plans need to
have absolute confidence that the right calls are being made. The
process behind the choice of airspace routing is based on a risk
assessment; both by a country's national aviation security services in
the advice that they give to their airlines, and by the airline in how
they assess this advice.

'This
risk assessment approach can give an illusion of safety but it is in
fact vulnerable to all sorts of influences including commercial pressure
and so it is not surprising to us that there are differences in the way
that this risk is assessed by different airlines.'

He went on: 'That is not good enough. Passengers and pilots want a uniform level of safety, not one that is decided in secret.

Paying tribute: Flowers have been laid outside the Netherlands Embassy in Kiev to remember those lost on flight MH17

'While
the ultimate responsibility of last week's murders lies with the people
who apparently directed a missile at a peaceful civil airliner, this
should not prevent us looking at the failures that led to that outcome;
failures that could easily be repeated in other areas of conflict.'

Mr McAuslan added: 'ICAO's purpose
should be to lead where national authorities cannot and it should have
the tools to do that. The problem of the absence of a clear
international co-ordination to avoid operations above eastern Ukraine
has now become tragically obvious and to avoid a repeat ICAO should be
better resourced and enabled to declare airspace unsafe.

'ICAO
also needs to reflect on its own rules of membership. Participating
states enjoy privileges such as free movement, but with that comes
responsibility. If a state does not live up to that responsibility, such
as sharing of information and allowing full and free access to accident
investigation, then membership and privileges should be reconsidered.'