by Rosie Alfatlawi
Ever wondered what would happen if a Qatar airways plane defied the Saudi ban on entering its airspace?
Well, now you don’t have to, after a Saudi-owned channel produced an animated video demonstrating how such a violating plane could be shot out of the sky.
Saudi's 'Al Arabiya' are showing graphics on tv 'What happens if #Qatar Airways aircraft fly in #Saudi airspace' pic.twitter.com/Vb4ZDIbmfR
— Alex Macheras (@AlexInAir) August 14, 2017
On August 9, Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV released the short clip explaining that "international law allows states to shoot down any flight that violates a state's airspace, which is classified as a legitimate target, especially over military areas."
The graphic shows a missile being fired towards an unmarked plane.
The video’s voiceover also indicates that international law allows a state “to deal with the violating plane in any way it wishes,” including “deploying a fighter jet that forces the plane to land and then prosecuting the flight crew."
This narration is accompanied by animated footage of a plane bearing the Qatar airways logo being escorted to land by a fighter jet. This is, the voiceover says, the usual way for dealing with commercial planes.
The video concludes by describing the existence of emergency corridors for use by Qatari planes in difficulty.
On June 5, Saudi Arabia was joined by Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE in imposing a land, air and sea embargo of the tiny Gulf state, which they accused of supporting terrorism. The blockade forced state-owned Qatar Airways to cancel more than 50 flights a day, CNN reported, as well as redirecting others.
Gulf Crisis Escalates: UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Egypt Cut Ties with Qatar
Qatar Airways Suspends Flights to Saudi Arabia Amid Diplomatic Crisis
After the eyebrow-raising video was shared on Twitter, many responded in shock. @unikgirl11 wrote: “No! There isn't any justification whatsoever [for the] shooting down of any airlines, Saudi State! #QatarAirways”
Aviation analyst @AlexInAir tweeted “There are more inaccuracies in this 'report' than in the entire Denzel Washington film 'Flight' - and I thought that was hard to beat…”
He added “It's shocking that a news channel would think it's acceptable to create & illustrate a passenger airline aircraft being blown out of the sky.”
@Akynners responded “Was this genuinely shown on saudi tv? If so, shocking!!”
One Qatari tweeted:
It's shocking to see an animation broadcasted on Saudi owned Dubai based TV, advocating the downing of a @QatarAirways commercial flight!! pic.twitter.com/6g6YP2zd14
— نواف بن مبارك ﺁﻝﺛﺎني (@NawafAlThani) August 14, 2017
Another, @ialimadi, wrote: “Bombing a civilian airplane!!!! What is this called? Spreading terrorist thinking or not???”
