United Nations Aircraft - In the meantime, European Union leaders have announced economic sanctions and plans to ban Belarusian airlines from European airspace and airports. These moves have been welcomed by the United States, where the Biden administration says that it is assessing "appropriate options".
It is possible that the urgent ICAO meeting leads to the “full, independent investigation” that the Secretary-General is calling for but, as mentioned above, the agency is not a global regulator, and does not have the power to take action against Belarus
United Nations Aircraft
, such as shutting down the country's airspace, or any other sanction. The Second World War was a period of rapid developments in aircraft technology. Towards the end of the conflict, in 1944, in anticipation of the growing popularity of civilian and freight air travel, the US Government invited delegates from allied states to Chicago to thrash out the first international Convention on Civil Aviation, commonly known as the "Chicago
Icao Was Set Up At The Dawn Of International Civil Aviation
Convention”. In response to the apparent forced landing of a commercial passenger plane in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, convened an urgent diplomatic meeting on Thursday. What is ICAO saying about the incident, and what powers does the agency have?
Like the UN as a whole, the strength of ICAO lies in its ability to bring together large numbers of countries, to forge international agreements. However, it is not a global regulator, and has no power to police the skies.
A chorus of condemnation from nations, rights organizations and the UN system followed: the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, expressed his deep concern, and called for a full, independent investigation, and the spokesperson for the Office of the High Commission for Human
Rights (OHCHR) said that the manner in which Mr. Protasevich was abducted, and brought to Belarus, "was tantamount to an extraordinary rendition". The latter is operated under UN livery by Ethiopian Airlines and is used to transport larger groups of people great distances.
…But It Does Not Police The Skies
For example, it often flies Nepali peacekeepers from Kathmandu to places like the Central African Republic or Congo. ICAO cannot arbitrarily close or restrict a country's airspace, shut down routes, or condemn airports or airlines for poor safety performance or customer service.
Countries make their own regulations, which airline operators must follow when they enter national airspace and airports. To fulfill its mission, UNHAS uses a fleet of more than 90 aircraft, including helicopters, chartered from commercial air operators that are compliant with the International Civil Aviation Organization Standards and Recommended Practices (ICAO SARPs) and the United Nations Aviation Standards for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian
Air Transport Operations (UNAVSTADS). On average, the air service agency transports 32,000 passengers and 300 tons of cargo to 323 regular destinations in 16 countries per month. It functions on a first-come-first-served basis and takes bookings and checks you in like any other carrier.
The United Nations is made up of 193 member states, and a sprawling array of various programs and funds unofficially referred to as the "UN family." However, there is no United Nations Airways or FlyUN in the long list of the organization's specialized agencies.
A Transporting Peacekeepers From Afar
So how come the UN has a fleet of commercial aircraft? Meanwhile, now and then, it is necessary to move larger amounts of people between non-scheduled destinations quickly. For these purposes, the UN used to operate three 737s between 2011 and 2018. Since December last year, however, it leases one narrowbody Airbus A320.
For longer-range purposes, it keeps a Boeing 767. UNHAS responds to the need for access to the world's most remote and challenging locations, often under precarious security conditions, where no safe surface transport or viable commercial aviation options are available.
Sometimes natural disasters – such as the recent Caribbean hurricanes – leave air transport as the only means of access; at other times, it is conflict that puts entire areas beyond the reach of land transport or commercial flights.
Created precisely for such scenarios, UNHAS provides access for humanitarian workers and cargo, allowing life-saving projects to be implemented and monitored. Meanwhile, humanitarian staff also need to reach places where people are most in need. These operations are run by the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), under the motto "our wings save lives."
Un Humanitarian Air Service
In turn, UNHAS is managed by the UN World Food Program (WFP). UNHAS provides air transport not only to UN staff but to all of the global humanitarian community. It makes certain that places affected by crises and natural disasters are not left without connectivity.
It moves aid workers in, but it can also evacuate parts of affected populations. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has strongly condemned the arbitrary detention of an opposition journalist in Belarus, calling it an "astonishing episode" that heralds a new phase in the campaign of repression against journalists and civil society there.
To accomplish this, UNHAS makes use of about 90 aircraft, most of which are chartered. However, the United Nations itself owns, or in a few cases leases, a fleet of 21 aircraft, averaging 22.7 years of age as of August 2020.
Most of the UN's aircraft are smaller passenger planes, which makes sense given the terrain in which they need to operate. According to data from Planespotters.net, the UN has one Bombardier CRJ-100 (currently stored), and seven of the improved efficiency CRJ-200 model.
Fleet Of Twenty-One Aircraft
It also has five Embraers; two ERJ-135, and three ERJ-145. Furthermore, it owns six De Havilland DHC-8 turboprops. These are used in humanitarian efforts, such as a medical mercy flight out of war-torn Yemen for seven individuals in need of health care in February this year.
They can also be used to transport smaller contingents of UN representatives visiting missions. The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), managed by the World Food Program (WFP), offers safe, reliable, cost-efficient and effective passenger and light cargo transport for the wider humanitarian community to and from areas of crisis and intervention.
It is the only humanitarian air service that gives equal access to all humanitarian entities. This is far from the first time that a plane has been diverted from its destination by force, but some experts believe that this is the first time that ICAO has had to discuss allegations that one of its own Member States has been responsible for such an incident
. Lead Sustainability Journalist - With a Masters in International Relations, Linnea has combined her love for current affairs with her passion for travel to become a key member of the Simple Flying team. With eight years' experience in publishing and citations in publications such as CNN, Linnea brings a deep understanding of politics and future aviation tech to her stories.
…But What Can It Do?
Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The prime objective of this document is the development of international civil aviation "in a safe and orderly manner", and the establishment of air transport services "on the basis of equality of opportunity and operated soundly and economically."
ICAO responded by publishing a Tweet, on the day of the incident, in which the organization noted that it was "strongly concerned by the apparent forced landing of a Ryanair flight and its passengers, which could be in contravention of the Chicago Convention."
A day later, the agency announced, again on Twitter, an urgent meeting of the ICAO Council on 27 May. In many areas where the United Nations operates, commercial airlines do not. However, land transportation can be precarious, hindered by challenging security conditions, or poor or non-existent roads.
For the UN's peacekeeping missions, aircraft are most often chartered, although they are often painted with neutral UN colors and symbols, such as the An-72 that crashed in Mali last month.
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