A commercial passenger flight from the Polish city of Poznan to Turkey’s ‘capital of tourism’ Antalya, accidentally flew into Ukrainian airspace despite the fact that Ukraine has been a designated ‘no fly’ zone since February 2022 when Russia invaded the country.
Aviation authorities in Poland say they have opened an investigation after the Boeing 737MAX operated by local charter carrier Enter Air crossed the border into Ukraine for several minutes on Friday, 23rd June.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the airline said that the pilots were been directed by air traffic controllers in Slovakia at the time of the incident as they attempted to avoid a storm front that had developed on their planned route.
“The plane avoided the storm and was directed by Slovak air traffic control to such a route,” the airline told Polish news channel TVN24. “Everything was done in accordance with safety procedures,” the statement continued.
Data supplied by Flight Radar 24 clearly shows Enter Air flight E4-4665 entering Ukrainian airspace where the border with Poland and Slovakia meet. The aircraft then flew close to the Slovakia border before reentering European airspace close to the border with Hungary.
The Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said in a statement: “At the time of the incident, the machine was in radio contact with air traffic controllers in Bratislava. There were storm fronts in the area of the flight.”
The incident will be reported to the State Commission for Investigation of Aircraft Accidents who will investigate exactly what happened.
Ukraine’s airspace was closed to all regular commercial air traffic on February 24, 2022, as Russian troops first invaded the country. In order to get one of its aircraft out of Ukraine following the invasion, low-cost carrier Wizz Air managed to fly an Airbus A320 at just 10,000 feet from the Ukrainian city of Lviv into Poland last September.
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