Turkish airline cancels Moscow flights, turning planes around midair
Photo: A Turkish airline decided not to take any chances (Getty Images)
Pegasus, Türkiye's largest private airline, turned its planes around in mid-air and canceled flights to Moscow following a threat by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to close Russian airspace, according to Ostorozhno, Novosti.
On the night of September 2, several of the airline's flights did not reach the Russian capital and were forced to return to their airports of departure.
According to the latest information, the flights in question are:
- PC1456 Bodrum–Moscow
- PC1521 Izmir–Moscow
- PC1576 Antalya–Moscow.
In addition, this morning the airline canceled several dozen flights from Istanbul to Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as from Antalya, Izmir, and Dalaman to Russian cities. The cancellations also affected return flights from Russia.
A Pegasus representative tells passengers on one of the canceled flights that the Turkish side is prohibiting departures. Furthermore, the company acknowledges that it does not know what will happen next.
At Russian Pegasus ticket offices, staff state that they do not know whether the airline's planes would operate flights to Moscow and were unable to provide information about upcoming flights.
Overnight, approximately 80 flights were canceled or delayed at Moscow airports due to the threat of drone attacks.
Schedule changes affected 40 flights at Sheremetyevo, 20 at Domodedovo, and 17 at Vnukovo.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that 130 Ukrainian drones were shot down last night over 11 regions of Russia, as well as over occupied Crimea.
On September 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine was beginning to close the airspace over Russia.
Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin immediately responded to these remarks by publicly threatening retaliation.
In addition, Putin added that Russian troops had been ordered to launch strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
