The United Nations agency that governs civil aviation has launched a public database to provide up-to-date information on armed conflicts that could endanger civilian flights.

This comes after the downing of a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) airliner in Ukraine last year, a UN spokesperson said yesterday.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was responding to urgings for an online information repository after Flight MH17, a civilian airliner, was shot down over Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

The public website, which is accessible for everyone, including airlines and the general public, takes submissions for its database only from authorised state officials. The identity of the state submitting the information will also be indicated.

“This centralised repository is meant to enhance the existing global framework whereby each state is responsible for assessing risks to civil aviation in their airspace, and for making that information promptly available to other states and airlines,” ICAO’s council president Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu said.

All 298 people on board the Boeing-777 died in the crash last July.

The US government believes the plane was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile.

Access to the site by officials for recovery of the bodies and the investigation was hampered and delayed by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

- dpa