EU task force urges intelligence sharing on flights near conflict zones

Intelligence agencies should support an EU effort to provide airlines with more timely information about the risk from flights near war zones, a task force set up in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine said Thursday. The panel also called for EASA to set up a system for sharing information on flying near conflict zones. It would contain threat information or EU risk assessments and try to address shortcomings that the panel found with a similar UN-backed information dissemination effort. Airlines should use the information to formulate their flight plans and share their own risk assessments with their national authorities and, ideally, with the European network, the European task force said. <br/>