You're reading: Malaysian Transport Minister: No last minute instructions to MH17 pilots to change route

There were no last minute instructions given to the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 pilots of the MH17 flight to change the route heading from Amsterdam (the Netherlands) to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), which was shot down in the east of Ukraine on July 17, Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said at a press conference on Saturday. 

“There were no last minute instructions given to the pilots of MH17 to change the route of the flight,” he said.

“The flight path taken by MH17 was approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and by the countries whose airspace the route passed through. And the International Air Transportation Association has also stated that the airspace the aircraft was traversing was unrestricted. 15 out of 16 airlines in the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines fly this route over Ukraine. European airlines also use the same route, and traverse the same airspace. In the hours before the incident, a number of other passenger aircraft from different carriers used the same route,” Liow Tiong Lai said in an official statement on MH17.

Malaysia Airlines earlier released a statement on the aircraft’s service record, stating that the aircraft had a clean bill of health. They also confirmed that the aircraft’s systems were functioning normally, and the aircraft communications addressing and reporting system and the aircraft’s transponders were working and transmitting as normal.

As was reported earlier, the Prime Minister of Malaysia announced on Saturday that Malaysia would dispatch a Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) to Kyiv on the same day.

In total, 62 people – 30 SMART team members, 15 medical staff, 10 Royal Malaysia Air Force representatives, 5 Malaysia Airlines staff, and 2 Department of Civil Aviation staff – are to set out to Ukraine.