An Air India flight to Kiev to bring back Indian citizens turned back mid-way in the morning hours of February 24 after Ukraine closed its airspace for commercial flights.
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AI 1947 took off from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at 7.30 a.m. and was airborne for two hours and had entered Iran when it turned back, according to flight tracking website flightradar24.com. This was the second repatriation flight planned by Air India this week. On Tuesday, Air India brought back 242 Indians from Kiev, comprising students mostly.
Early on Thursday morning, Russia issued a NOTAM (notice to airmen) banning civilian air traffic in airspace over north-eastern Ukraine. This was followed by Ukraine issuing a notice to close its airspace to civilian airspace users “due to the high risk of aviation safety” with effect from 6.15 a.m. IST.
Russia has also closed some airspace in the Rostov sector to the east of its border with Ukraine “in order to provide safety” for civil aviation flights, a notice to airmen showed.
European Union Aviation Safety Agency too issued a warning for airline operators about hazards in flying in bordering areas of Russia and Belarus.