Russian airlines are continuing to operate flights to Tehran and fly over Iranian airspace following the crash of a Boeing 737 Ukrainian International Airlines flight Wednesday that killed 176 passengers and crew.
Russia’s national airline Aeroflot completed a round trip from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport to the Iranian capital just hours after a handful of other international airlines cancelled or diverted flights to avoid Iranian and Iraqi airspace.
Data from FlightRadar 24 shows Aeroflot flight SU512 from Moscow to Tehran departed from Moscow on schedule at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, landed in Tehran early Thursday morning and returned to Moscow as planned.
Russian flights to Dubai, which fly for more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) over Iranian airspace, also continued following the crash, which came as Iran launched a dozen missile strikes on U.S. and coalition military bases in Iraq in response to the American killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Aeroflot operated three flights from Moscow to Dubai Wednesday, while the airline’s low-cost subsidiary Pobeda also flew to Dubai across Iranian airspace as scheduled. Regional airline S7 operated a regular flight from Russia’s third largest city Novosibirsk to Dubai, also across Iran, flight data shows. Aeroflot did reroute a Wednesday night flight from Moscow to the Maldives to avoid Iran.
Flights between Moscow and Dubai Thursday were also continuing to fly across Iranian airspace as normal. Airline representatives told Russian daily Kommersant they had prepared alternative flight plans avoiding Iran which can be implemented if necessary.
Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency Wednesday recommended Russian airlines avoid airspace around the region “due to information about current risks for safety of international passenger flights.” However, the aviation regulator fell short of issuing a blanket ban on Russian airlines operating flights in the region, stating that the ultimate decision over flight routes should be taken by individual carriers.
Aeroflot and the Federal Air Transport Agency authority did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. regulators have banned American airlines from flying over Iraq, Iran, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and other major airlines including Air France, Air Canada, KLM, Lufthansa, and Qantas have confirmed they are avoiding parts of the region.
Government ministers and Russia’s transport and tourism agencies are scheduled to meet Friday, Kommersant reported, to discuss the situation and potentially take further measures regarding the operation of Russian flights around the region.
(c) The Moscow Times
Russian planes are obviously safe from Russian missiles in Iran. The poor Ukrainians were not so lucky.
They’re surely equipped with some extra hardware to avoid friendly fire. Ukrainian planes of course don’t have it.
The latest BS doing the rounds is thst the pilot was trying to turn the plane around, and head back. Looks like the Iranians are taking disinformation lessons from Muscovy. I’m just waiting for Russian satellite info showing a US plane shooting down the Ukrainian plane.
From the footage i saw, the pilot was trying to avoid the shelling by flying circles instead of a straight route. But the caliber used had a far reach, so the plane had no chance.
Maybe this was Iranian way of retaliation against the US, by killing over a hundred Iranians on a US built plane.
Yeah, like Russia punishing Ukraine by killing hundreds of dutch and australians…
Terrorists think differently from normal people. Claim a Boeing plane has problems, Boeing have to ground the whole fleet, other countries refuse to buy them. Boeing lose lots of money. Might be far fetched, but anything is possible in these shithole countries.
Would make sense if not happened three hours after a strike on US bases in Iraq, when of course Iran was awaiting a US military response. But who knows. The damage has been done.
Keep in mind too, that the 737 is designed to operate on only 1 engine. If it was engine failure they could have easily just turned around and landed safely. Plus, jet engines don’t easily catch fire in the air.
If the pilot was trying to turn the plane around, surely they would have contacted the airport for permission to land. There was 3 pilots on board, one of them would have raised the alarm, if they had time. I think the Iranians fucked up big time, and some trigger happy idiot was told to shoot at anything that moves.
Yeah, the same people that trampled dozens to death during a funeral. Pictures I saw showed several large caliber bullet holes in the cockpit, wings and fuselage.
Why stop at stampedes and planes.
https://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/263661261/multiple-casualties-as-bus-crashes-in-iran
Tragic.
Is “BigNewsNetwork” associated with Knut’s favorite “Raw Story”? At the end of the article it says, “All 176 on board, most of whom were unkraine or Canadian were killed.”
😉
Yeah, not sure what country unkraine is.
Sounds like a planet from the Star Trek series. 😂
Sloppy journalism at best.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8a7h7AUwAAN3Js.jpg 😉