Flights over Russia: EU authority issues warning – “highly risky”

A good two weeks after the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane in Kazakhstan, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has described flights over Russia as “highly risky”. The war in Ukraine poses the risk “that civilian aircraft in the airspace of the Russian Federation (…) will inadvertently become targets,” according to a security advisory published on Friday.

This was due to a “possible lack of coordination between civil and military authorities,” explained the EU authority. She reiterated her recommendation to avoid the airspace in western Russia.

Russia called the recommendation “absurd.” It is “obvious that unfriendly states (…) are trying to inflict reputational and economic damage on Russia and its civil aviation,” said the Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsia.

Easa pointed out that EU airlines do not currently use Russian airspace, but several airlines from other countries do, “despite the risk associated with the war.” These include airlines from China, Turkey and the Gulf states. Russian President Vladimir Putin has banned EU airlines from using Russian airspace.

The plane that crashed on December 25th was a Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. Two days ago, Brazil handed over the data from the flight recorders to Kazakhstan.

The plane crashed near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan. 38 people died and 29 survived. Azerbaijan believes the plane was shot down by Russian air defenses.

Putin apologized for the incident and admitted that Russian air defenses were active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny. However, the Kremlin chief did not take direct responsibility. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev demanded that Russia openly admit that it accidentally shot down the plane.