The European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued a new alert on Thursday warning non-European airlines not to fly within Russia's western airspace due to the risk of being inadvertently attacked by its air defense systems.
Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, denounced the alert as a new imposition of sanctions on Russian companies and an attempt to allow Western airlines to regain lost markets.
EASA said the crash last month in Kazakhstan of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane, after Russian air defenses fired on Ukrainian drones, demonstrated the high risk at stake. At least 38 people died in the accident.
“The ongoing conflict following the Russian invasion of Ukraine raises the risk of civilian aircraft being inadvertently attacked in the airspace of the Russian Federation due to potential deficiencies in civil-military coordination and the possibility of misidentification,” EASA said. .
“EASA recommends not operating within the affected airspace of the Russian Federation located west of longitude 60° East at all altitudes and flight levels.”
The warning was for third-country operators authorized by EASA, as Russian airspace has been closed to European Union airlines since the bloc imposed Ukraine-related sanctions targeting Russia's aviation sector.
A statement issued Friday by Rosaviatsiya said air safety was its top priority and the recommendation was unjustified.
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“This recommendation is nothing more than a continuation of the sanctions policy of Western countries on the aviation industry of the Russian Federation,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging application.
EASA, he said, was trying to secure a reduction in the number of flights by Asian carriers to EU destinations using the Trans-Siberian route.
“AESA, through this recommendation, is simply trying to regain the lost competitive advantage for its companies,” he said.
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary results of Azerbaijan's investigation told Reuters last month that Russian air defenses had shot down the plane by mistake. Passengers said they heard a loud bang outside the plane.
President Vladimir Putin apologized to Azerbaijan's leader for what the Kremlin called a “tragic incident,” although the Kremlin statement did not say that Russia had shot down the plane, noting only that a criminal case had been opened.
—Reporting by Sarah Marsh in Berlin; Editing by Rod Nickel, Ron Popeski and Matthew Lewis