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A plane from Moscow bound for New York made a U-turn over the sea mid-flight and flew back to Russia amid new sanctions in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Aeroflot flight SU124/AFL124 took off from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow on Sunday and was scheduled to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
But hours in flight, website flight radar24shows that the plane made a U-turn over the sea just off the coast of Greenland and headed back to Moscow.
The website indicates that the aircraft made a delayed takeoff, finally departing at 12:55 UTC, before the U-turn took about four hours to take off.
According to the website, the same route scheduled for March 1 has been cancelled.
The plane’s flight path was shared by Bostero2 on Monday on an attempt there forum on Reddit, where it received more than 27,000 upvotes. The flight map was captioned: “To fly to New York.”
Canada moved on Sunday to ban Russian aircraft from using its airspace, possibly one of the factors prompting it to scale back flight.
Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabara tweeted the decree on Sunday, saying: “Effective immediately, Canadian airspace is closed to all Russian aircraft operators. We will hold Russia accountable for unprovoked attacks against Ukraine.” “
Alghbra said: “Canadians are all united in their outrage of President Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. In response, we have closed Canadian airspace to Russian-owned or operated aircraft. Condemns the actions and we will continue to take action. To stand with Ukraine.”
A release said: “The Government of Canada is prohibiting the operation of Russian-owned, chartered or operated aircraft in Canadian airspace, including airspace over Canadian territorial waters. This airspace closure is effective immediately and at further notice. Will last.”
Another Aeroflot craft broke down soon after the embargo, with Canada issuing warnings to Russian planes.
According to Flight Radar24, Flight 111 traveling from Miami to Moscow took off at 15:12 ET on Sunday and used Canadian airspace.
On Monday, Transport Canada tweeted: “We are aware that Aeroflot Flight 111 has violated a ban imposed earlier today on Russian flights using Canadian airspace.
“We are beginning a review of the conduct of Aeroflot and the independent air navigation service provider, NAVCAN, that led to this breach. We will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action and other measures to prevent future violations.”
A spokesman for Canada’s transport minister claimed that their air-traffic control service provider NAVCAN had mistakenly allowed the restricted aircraft to use Canadian airspace, according to Reuters.
The site quoted NAVCAN as saying, “We are currently cooperating with Transport Canada to investigate the incident, and Neighbor Air Navigation to support the re-route of aircraft prior to entering Canadian controlled airspace. Working with service providers.”
While there are no direct flights from Canada to Russia, many routes previously passed through the vast country’s airspace to other destinations.
The European Union also moved to ban Russian aircraft from its airspace, the president of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed in a series of tweets on Sunday.
Announcing a number of measures against Russia, she said: “First of all, we are closing EU airspace to Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft.
“They will not be able to land, take off or take off over EU territory. Including private jets of oligarchs.”
On Reddit, many theorized that EU sanctions may play a wider role in the diversion than Canada’s ban.
PizzaHero wrote: “If they had landed, they would have been considered a “new” flight upon return and would not have been allowed into EU airspace. So they turned around instead, as the EU did not enforce this. on existing flights that were already in the air at the time of the announcement.”
StenSoft commented: “No, they were cleared with their flight plan all the way to New York. They returned because the European ban on new flights went into effect and they didn’t return to Russia after landing in New York.” will be able to go.”
Ison-J wrote: “I am not an expert at all, but I believe that a good number of European countries have decided to ban all Russian aircraft from entering their airspace, so they Will have to go to many countries or not go back.”
