Air France gives wider berth to North Korea

AIR France-klm has expanded its nofly zone around North Korea after one of its jets flew past the location where an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired by Pyongyang landed just 10 minutes earlier.

British Airways, which has used a similar route over the Sea of Japan as recently as Thursday, told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that their routes were under constant review.

Air France’s flight 293, a Boeing 777 carrying 323 people from Tokyo to Paris, missed North Korea’s latest ICBM by about 60 miles as it hit the Sea of Japan on July 28, a spokesman said, citing flight data provided by Japan.

Air France said the plane was never in danger. “The information available to Air France at this stage indicates that the missile was damaged at sea more than 62 miles from the trajectory of its aircraft,” airline officials said.

It said that even if this distance was correct, it would not have imperilled the flight.

As a precaution, Air France-klm has decided to re-route flights heading north from Japan, saying: “At this stage, as a precautionary measure, the company has decided to expand the nonflyover area around North Korea, a country that it does not overfly.”

It stressed that the flight had “operated in accordance with the flight plan and without any reported incident.”

The new route would make the flights 10 to 30 minutes longer, depending on the direction of travel, the spokesman said.

Ian Petchenik, of Flightradar24, said: “Over the past few days, various airlines have continued to use unrestricted airspace east of the North Korean flight information region.”

These include Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot, Lufthansa, Japan Airlines and Swiss.

60 miles How close Air France’s flight 293 came to North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile as it hit the Sea of Japan on July 28