New Delhi: An Air India flight to Kyiv to bring back Indian citizens has returned midway on the morning of 24 February. Because Ukraine has closed its airspace for all commercial flights. After a flight of about two hours, this plane was on the border of Iran. Then it received information about the closure of its airspace in Ukraine. After this Air India’s flight returned to Kyiv. This was the second flight of Air India this week to evacuate Indians stranded in Ukraine.
Air India’s AI-1947 aircraft took off from New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at 7.30 am and reached the Iranian border after two hours. After this, the plane received information about the closure of the Ukrainian air border and returned. This was Air India’s second flight to Kyiv this week. On Tuesday, Air India brought back 242 Indians, mostly students, from Kyiv.
On Thursday morning, Russia issued a NOTAM (notice to airmen) banning civilian air traffic in the airspace over north-eastern Ukraine. After this, Ukraine issued a notice to close its airspace to civilian air flights from 6.15 a.m. due to the high risk to the safety of flights.
Russia has also closed some airspace in the Rostov sector along its border with Ukraine to protect civilian flights. The European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency has also issued a warning to airline operators about the danger in flight over the border areas of Russia and Belarus.
