Passenger jets could be hit by wayward North Korean missiles, experts have warned.
It comes as Pyongyang fired its 19th unannounced missile of the year which sailed over Japan before landing in the sea on Friday.
Leader Kim Jong Un called the exercise a ‘shining victory’ in his country’s escalating standoff with the United States.
Thousands of Japanese citizens were woken up by air-raid sirens for the second time in just three weeks as the missile travelled over the northern island of Hokkaido.
Air France has extended a no-fly zone over North Korea following a near miss with one of Pyongyang’s missiles
Leader Kim Jong Un called the missile launch a ‘shining victory’ in his country’s escalating standoff with the United States
But while North Korea’s increased military exercises have raised fears on the ground, they have also fueled concerns for aviation safety.
Indeed, while panic ensued in Japan, one airline passenger travelling to Osaka at the time revealed that he and the rest of the cabin were bluntly informed that a missile was airborne with them.
Now airlines are believed to be considering issuing a no-fly zone over the area amid fears a miscalculation by Pyongyang could end in disaster.
Ankit Panda, associate editor of The Diplomat, a magazine covering the Asia Pacific, told the BBC: ‘These missile tests do pose a risk for commercial planes.
‘It’s entirely plausible the missile would go awry and it enters a much more congested airspace.’
Another theory is that the missile could disintegrate at altitude, leaving a field of debris in the path of planes.
Wreckage from the MH17 flight that was downed by a missile fired by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in July 2014
Where can it go? This graphic shows how far the missile can reach, and the distance to other possible targets, including Seattle, London, Moscow and Hawaii
The risks fuel fears of a potential disaster similar to that of the 2014 MH17 crash, in which a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down by a surface-to-air missile in eastern Ukraine.
The plane was targeted by pro-Russian separatists in the region who had mistaken the passenger plane for a military aircraft. None of the 298 people on board MH17 survived.
Last month an Air France flight travelling from Tokyo to Paris flew within 62 miles (100km) of one of North Korea’s deadly airborne weapons.
Though the chance of an aircraft being downed as a result of a missile launch is incredibly unlikely, it is certainly a concern for airlines.
Air France, for example, has expanded a no-fly zone over North Korea following the near-miss.
Ellis Taylor of aviation analysts FlightGlobal said: ‘Some airlines have indicated that they are changing their flight paths to avoid flying over North Korea and the area between North Korea and Hokkaido.’