Passenger plane from Norway flies over Ukraine despite closed airspace

A Norwegian charter plane carrying passengers bound for Türkiye has flown over Ukraine, ignoring a no-fly zone imposed due to the war.

Source: This was reported by Norwegian TV and radio channel NRK, writes European Pravda

Details: BBN Airlines has confirmed that the incident did take place.

Quote: "We understand the concern this incident is causing and ensure that we will actively take steps to prevent similar incidents in the future," a BBN Airlines spokesperson wrote in an email.

On 25 July this year, an Airbus A320-200, owned by BBN Airlines, was heading to Antalya via Ukraine. The aircraft can carry up to 180 passengers.

The aircraft with the crew was chartered by the Turkish airline Freebird Airlines. The company, which operates charter flights to Türkiye, was therefore the operator responsible for the flight.

The charter plane departed from Gardermoen at 22:08 Norwegian time.

A storm approaching the original flight path forced the crew to consider an alternative route.

After about two hours in the air, around midnight Norwegian time, the captain changed the route, BBN Airlines confirms. The company itself does not state clearly that they flew through Ukraine.

But the Flightradar24 service recorded this flight. From its data, it is clear that the charter plane flew from northeastern Hungary to the no-fly zone in war-torn Ukraine.

After entering southwestern Ukraine, the plane was in the no-fly zone for a long time, before it entered Suceava County in Romania.

BBN Airlines said it had launched an internal investigation following the incident.

Lars Peder Haga, appointed to the Norwegian Air Force School, emphasises that the no-fly zone over Ukraine exists for good reasons.

"It is potentially dangerous to fly in a combat zone where there are air defence systems that reach heights at which passenger aircraft usually fly, and where there may be planes and other aircraft that do not transmit their location," he said.

But Haga notes that the real danger of the plane being shot down was probably small.

Haga believes it is extremely unlikely that a passenger plane could have been shot down by Russian ballistic missiles. He compares this probability to hitting a "needle in a haystack."

Therefore, the most dangerous scenario would be that the aircraft could be perceived by the Ukrainian air defence as an enemy target.

But Haga points out that Ukrainians are probably aware that the airspace west of them is heavily used and that they have procedures in place to avoid mistakenly downing passenger planes.

"The Ukrainian air-traffic control and warning systems and air defence are admittedly good. They could have recognised the aircraft as a passenger plane, based on its altitude, direction and transponder signal," he said.

Background:

• In June, an Enter Air plane en route from Poland to Türkiye entered Ukrainian airspace for several minutes.
• Earlier it was reported that European low-cost airline Ryanair may resume a small number of flights to Ukraine by the end of 2023.

Ukrainska Pravda is the place where you will find the most up-to-date information about everything related to the war in Ukraine. Follow us on Twitter, support us, or become our patron!