Widebody Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 155; Flight Crew Total 11500; Flight Crew Type 155
Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Confusion
Airspace Violation All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Procedure; Airspace Structure
We were enroute from the Middle East to Europe and flew thru an airspace temporarily off limits to U.S. Airlines. This is a route I have flown many times in the past with similar routing. I was the operating IRO (International Relief Officer) and flying with two other crew members who were also very familiar with this route. We were filed for this flight by our company dispatcher on a 'normal' route and we missed the NOTAM identifying this particular airspace as temporarily off limits for U.S. operators. I believe complacency played a role in this case; along with not closely enough reading all of NOTAMs listed in our flight paperwork. We do pass thru many countries and airspaces every day as International crew members and we sometimes think we are more familiar and comfortable than we probably should be. Also; the ever changing political climate in the world adds to the complexity of international airspace and this obviously affects the workload of international airline crew members. Bottom line; we all missed the pertinent NOTAM all the way down the line from our Dispatcher to the other two crew members and myself. I will certainly pay much more attention to all details of my flight paper work in the future whether I am familiar with the route/flight or not.
I recently vacationed on the beaches of the Black Sea so flying the more efficient route over the Black Sea did not give me any red flags. In fact; flying route L851 was so familiar that I was glad to see our carrier using it again. It did not dawn on me that the UKFV FIR area was still prohibited. I must have missed the NOTAM. No incident occurred in this airspace.
A U.S. based airline crew on a flight from the Middle East to Europe was filed through Crimea (UKFV) unaware US carrier flight through that airspace was prohibited.