The Airbus A319-132 plane, which took off from Belgrade's "Nikola Tesla" airport on Monday, late in the evening, did not arrive at its destination - Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. The reason is the Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, it says Dunja Marić in the New Economy.
Namely, on the night between May 5 and 6, the Ukrainian army attacked Moscow with drones. It was the second night in a row that Ukraine attacked Moscow ahead of the city's World War II Victory Day parade. As the Russian aviation surveillance agency Rosaviatsia announced on Telegram, all four main airports in Moscow were closed for several hours.
Although passengers in different circumstances would be entitled to compensation, this case is specific. Namely, the airline, in this case Air Serbia, could not influence or prevent war actions in other countries, and is therefore not obliged to pay compensation to passengers.
Why is that so?
The European regulation, or regulation known as EU 261, which applies to flights from Serbia, even to countries outside the EU, protects passengers and their rights in four basic cases. These are flight delays, flight cancellations, inability to board due to, for example, overbooking, as well as downgrading passengers against their will. In these cases, passengers are entitled to monetary compensation. The amount of the monetary compensation varies, and can reach up to 600 euros.
However, the situation is different when the reason for the delay or cancellation of the flight is some extraordinary circumstance. It can be a storm, a collision with a bird, instructions from a control tower or, as in this case, war operations in a country. In other words, the airline is not obliged to pay compensation if it was not possible to prevent the delay or cancellation of the flight.
On the other hand, if the reason for delaying or delaying the flight is a technical fault, which the company could influence, it is obliged to pay compensation.
All this, however, does not mean that in emergency situations passengers have no right to any protection. According to European regulations, even in cases of cancellation due to extraordinary circumstances, passengers have the right to a rerouting of the flight or a refund of the ticket amount.
Also, if necessary, the airline is obliged to provide passengers with hotel accommodation, food and drinks while waiting for an alternative flight.
What happened on the way to Moscow?
After taking off from Belgrade, flight JU138 flew over the airspace of Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Lithuania, but at around 1.20:XNUMX a.m. (local time) it made a U-turn and returned to Belgrade. The plane landed at "Nikola Tesla" airport a little after three o'clock in the morning.
According to unofficial information from New Economy, the flight crew requested an emergency landing first from Swedish flight control, and then from Poland, but neither of those two countries wanted to allow the Serbian plane to land at one of their airports. According to our source, the reason for the refusal is the fact that there was no malfunction on the Avon, but the crew reported that it was not approved to enter the territory of Russia. The flight controls of these countries therefore gave approval only for overflights to Belgrade via their territory.
Source: New Economy
