U.S. fines Virgin Atlantic $1.05 million for flying over Iraq

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Transportation Division (USDOT) mentioned Tuesday it had fined Virgin Atlantic $1.05 million for flying in restricted airspace over Iraq on quite a few events.

USDOT has jurisdiction for the reason that flights carried Delta Air Traces’ code.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued a discover prohibiting U.S. carriers from flying over Iraqi airspace with out prior approval.

The investigation discovered Virgin Atlantic flew “a major quantity” of flights that breached the ban between September 2020 and September 2021, USDOT mentioned, including the airline was ordered to stop future violations.

Virgin Atlantic mentioned Tuesday that “as quickly as we had been made conscious of this compliance difficulty by the DOT, our code share flight routings had been instantly corrected.”

USDOT notified the airline of the violation in September 2021 for flights between London and India that flew over Iraq. On the time, different overseas governments permitted flying over Iraqi airspace at excessive altitudes, with quite a few flights over Iraq each day.

Virgin Atlantic should pay $525,000 in three installments whereas the remaining $525,000 is payable provided that Virgin Atlantic violates the order’s stop and desist or fee provisions.

In March 2020, the FAA issued a discover barring flight operations in any respect altitudes resulting from “heightened militia actions and elevated tensions in Iraq.”

USDOT mentioned Virgin Atlantic had instructed the company the “prohibited overflights had been inadvertent, brought on by operational disruptions and lack of personnel because of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Virgin Atlantic instructed USDOT that upon notification by the U.S. authorities “it instantly rerouted flights to keep away from the airspace in query and knowledgeable its board and senior management of the problem.”

Virgin Atlantic additionally famous it had invested in Sentinel by Osprey, an automatic device that “dynamically alerts airways on the flight strategy planning stage or operational stage, of any regulatory restrictions impacting their, or their codeshare companions’ flights.”