NEWS FLASH
Air Serbia’s flight to Moscow today was diverted back to Belgrade ten minutes following its departure after a bomb was reported on board the Airbus A330-200 aircraft. It follows a series of similar false threats issued throughout last week in an apparent show of displeasure at the airline’s ongoing operations to Russia. Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, recently said the threats are being orchestrated by foreign secret services. Mr Vučić also went public two days ago to note that Russia bound flights are being purposely delayed by half an hour so as to avoid the hoax threats while the aircraft is in the air. As EX-YU Aviation News learns, Air Serbia has blocked access to its website in Ukraine. The majority of the hoax bomb threats have come from Ukraine, although some have come from Poland as well. This week, the Serbian carrier reduced its operations to Moscow from fifteen to eight per week following criticism it was profiting from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
I don't know what's more crazy. These bomb threats or the president who publicly stated to the whole world how they are going to avoid the bomb threats. Nice going there.
ReplyDeleteHe's a class act. no doubt.
DeleteWe are very fortunate to have geniuses for leaders!
DeleteI would love to ask him now how does he feel and what is his next trick? Stupid as can be!!
DeleteThe next trick should be introducing Isreali-type security for flights to Moscow.
DeleteCan you believe any single airport in the world would have its operations delayed or paralysed because of bogus bomb threats??!
Yes, they all take bomb threats very seriously and follow the safety protocols.
DeleteThis is getting way too extreme. Vučić is becoming Air Serbia's spokesman lately and this is not helping. If there is so much international pressure, why not temporarily stop those bloody flights to Moscow. Yes, the route might be very profitable due to the lack of options but because those are fanatics, they might end up blowing up the aircraft in mid air and will care any less about the 200+ passengers. Crazy times!
ReplyDeleteBut isn't the western mantra never to cave in to terrorists?
DeleteUkrainian politicians have attacked JU so why shouldn't the Serbian president defend them?
Delete17:53 - yes and the ASL website is blocked in Ukraine!! I mean wow....what suddenly happened with the Pan-Slavism. Slavs were never ever divided as they currently are. What a shame and all this because of this stupid useless war that is only dividing ppl and not building bridges!!! Until when will this continent free itself entirely of wars???? It is also not of Serbia's interest to worsen its ties with Ukraine nor Poland. Those are 2 big important countries. The Polish president was in a tour these days in Moldova, Bulgaria and Romania and did not include Serbia to his visit. Just saying.
DeleteJU is Vucko's personal project. So he speaks for it and bypasses its management.
DeleteAgtre with everything this gouvermant does . They have majority ownership and they definitely should be in charge . Neibourhood gouvermants took advantage of JAT being grounded in 90s and nobody complained at that time . Bomb treats are not just an airline concern here, there is a way bigger picture behind it.
DeleteThe only thing these bomb threats are doing is ruining Air Serbia's fame and safety they should temporally suspend these flights.
Delete99% of people and potential customers have no any idea or info about 'bomb threats'.
DeleteCanceling flights would give motivation for increased terrorism in this form in my opinion. What will be next? Call in bomb threats to civilian aircraft from the EU for their involvement in the wars in the Middle East? Saudis on Iranian aircraft? Iranians on American and Saudi aircraft? Bomb threats on Chinese carriers in the name of Tibet or Taiwan? North Koreans on South Korean aircraft? The list could go on. Double the flights and claim it is in response to the bomb threats. Once the threats stop, reduce the flights back.
DeleteIf Vucic wants to protect Air Serbia, he should call the Ukrainian Ambasador for talks regarding the issue and demand assurances the individuals will be prosecuted, or extradited to Serbia for prosecution. Same for Poland. What kind of EU values would Poland be showing not prosecuting individuals from threatening civilian aircraft from their country? Is this the benchmark Serbia should be following to join the EU? Have our radicals threaten for example Albanian civilian aircraft for EU approval?
As seen on social media, disturbing protests from Ukrainians are targeting ANY foreign company that has sales in Russia, including Colgate! Russian oligarchs are obviously profiting off Colgate toothpaste! However billions of Euros of Russian gas passing through Ukrainian territory to EU countries seems ok?
@18,12
What happened to Pan Slavism? Serbians do support the Ukrainians in their period of tragedy, a close reminder of 1999 and the NATO bombardment. This past weekend there was another pro Ukrainian protest in Belgrade. However it is incidents like this that fuel radical arguments supporting the war.
Serbia is housing Ukrainian refugees that have come to Serbia, groups have been made to assist them. Serbia also, through the JU flights that the Ukrainians are targeting, are taking alot of Russians fleeing Putins regime as well, who mostly move on to other countries, including the United States. Protesting against Putin, as seen in the media, is getting you a lengthy jail sentence.
Also, the Russians don't want to have NATO expand on their border, made it clear, NATO insisted via Kiev, now it looks like Moscow will get its way as NATO won't support Ukraine, leaving millions of innocent Ukrainians displaced or without homes. Absolutely tragic.
"Neibourhood gouvermants"
DeleteWho did take advantage? Gouvermant?
I'm dead LOL.
I could not believe that Vucic spoke about the delay tactic, that was stupid to say the least. Beg airport to beef up security and ignore tje calls from lunatics.
ReplyDeleteYou can't just ignore a bomb threat on an aircraft.
DeleteYou might lose your insurance coverage if you as an airline choose to disregard standard safety practices.
So can you tell us how did El Al operate when flying into BEG?
Delete@23,13
DeleteEl Al are world known for their security procedures. These include:
- anti missile defense systems on all aircraft.
- double door cockpit access.
- reinforced floors between cabin and cargo.
- armed air martials.
- rigorous screening of ALL pax prior to boarding, both in TLV and outstation by Israeli security. Recently, there was an issue with accommodating Israeli security at DXB.
The added security procedures is paid for by the Israeli government.
This wont work for JU as people already complain about the subsidies given to JU, and these threats are easily resolved with rule of law. JU also has a large focus on transit pax, while this is not the case for LY. People simply wouldn't use JU as a transit carrier if interrogated by Serbian security officials for each and every flight.
I didn't mean to literally copy it.
DeleteBut simply scan all the f*cking baggage before it's loaded on the flight.
All baggage is scanned before each and every flight.
DeleteWonder if they could reduce similar threats by asking BEG airport operator to remove ASL's flights to/from SVO from online schedules and online departure/arrival board. Similarly JU flights to/from SVO should switch off devices indicating aircraft's position on FR24. I know that there are many both cargo and civil flights not visible to FR24 until they land to their destination airport. It is likely that idiots use these publicly visible information to make hoax bomb threats
ReplyDeleteAircraft cannot fly without transponder being switched on, so all civilian aircraft are visible on FR24.
DeleteAnd even if they managed to convince FR24 not to show the flights, you just need a person with an ADS-B receiver somewhere along the flightpath...
March 15 around 21.45, B747 by National, flight N8 815 RZE BEG. Entire flight was not visible on FR24 until the plane landed at BEG. I was walking my dog when saw the plane approaching airport and checked app on my phone immediately since it was a wide body. The app wasn't displaying any flight. A few minutes later when it landed, transponder was suddenly on and that moment entire route and the flight was visible. What was the reason for that move we can only guess, but knowing that National airline is used by US army, and that RZE is very active airport the past month with military, leaves void for various theories.
DeleteAlso, some of the charters with fake asylum seekers are often invisible to FR24 etc.
My point is that in certain cases it is possible for a flight not to be visible on FR24. How it works I don't know. Experts who know should try to work the idea out.
Just so everyone knows, the prices for Air Serbia's flight from Moscow to Belgrade (one way) is fixed at 500€ for any date up until the end of the May. Before this damn war, price was about 300€ for both ways... War profiteers should be punished
ReplyDelete+1000
DeleteVlad, why are you insulting him? Did he say anything which is not true? Increased demand is because Russians do not have much options left in Europe to emigrate from their country. Look at this example from today:
Deletehttps://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/22/170k-russian-it-specialists-could-emigrate-by-april-industry-a77034
Before you judge other people, please make some research.
Ehm, please complain to the EU who 'indirectly' limited the number of flights and made lower fares unavailable.
DeleteFYI TK charges 1.500$ from Moscow to Belgrade.
Talk about profiteering.
"Vlad, why are you insulting him?"
DeleteBecause I've read this nonsense argument about war profiteering once too many times. JU is not charging Ukrainian refugees 1000€ for tickets, but middle-class Russians who want to get in and/or out of Russia which is under EU sanctions. No one is fleeing for dear life on JU aircraft.
Actually, transits through BEG are usually cheaper than direct flights to Belgrade.
DeleteFor example even New York sells for 650 Eur. on some days from Moscow.
Vlad, you seem to be very triggered from this "war profiteering" and yes it is. This makes Serbia look like a vulture and feeding on dead flesh.
DeleteI really hope they make money but also find it risky that some crazy lunatic places a bomb and blows the aircraft in zero time. The text clearly says: " The majority of the hoax bomb threats have come from Ukraine, although some have come from Poland as well." - this means that Poland is also or might also be involved in this bs.
@00,05
DeleteWhat a disturbing comment to make.
The war is in Ukraine, not in Russia. It's not war profiteering operating in Russia, but would be if JU was flying to Ukraine and charging those prices to Ukrainians fleeing the war.
Serbia has not placed sanctions on Russia, JU can operate as it pleases. EU pretends to be against the decisions of Moscow to attack Ukraine with flight bans, however it's as if you kiss a broken leg and hope it gets fixed. 500 airline seats will not make Moscow rich or influence the war, however the billions of euros of oil, gas and coal EU countries import from Russia will fill the pockets of Russian oligarchs and the Russian budget for producing the very weapons used in Ukraine. Just like the 1.400 seats Finnish railways offer between Helsinki-St Petersburg. Mind you, the Ukrainian government makes money from the transit fees of Russian gas for example.
Furthermore, Russia as well as Ukraine produce alot of food that is exported around the world. Wheat for example. Countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria and Yemen are a couple of the largest importers of Russian wheat. Should they starve to show solidarity to Ukrainians? The list can go on.
+1000000
DeleteI doubt that blocking the site in certain countries will work especially if "foreign secret services" are behind it. Most tech savvy people know about VPN and how to make it look like you are accessing a site from a different country. Even in the Balkans many people do this to watch streaming movies that aren't available in their country. I think JU needs to save the extra money they are making on this route so they have it available if this route ever gets shutdown. If it keeps going then they will have extra money for fleet updates and other needed spending.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand is that it takes them 7+ hrs to inspect the plane...this is beyond me
ReplyDeleteEvery single piece of equipment on board - trays, carts, utensils - have to screened, entire aircraft checked, all luggage and cargo screened, all passengers screened.
DeleteIs it REALLY possible there is no other solution to this?
DeleteUsually it takes them three hours.
DeleteJust a thought, what happens if the ASL plane has technical problem while in Russia, how do they fix it? If they have that particular part at SVO and sending spare part on another plane would be against the sanctions?
ReplyDeleteMechanics and parts can be flown from Belgrade to Moscow to fix the problem.
DeleteTurkish is clearly the elephant in the room.
ReplyDeleteHow did they get away with all these increases and their Russian presence without a single mention of them or 'threat'?
Air Serbia flew Moscow 2-3 daily while they did 5 daily.
They increased Kazan to daily, Yekaterinburg to three weekly, LED to double
daily etc. Air Serbia increased it to 4 weekly.
Saudia is bringing forward its Moscow launch, Air India is tripling its number of flights and so on.
There is really a degree of hypocrisy that goes beyond what is comprehensible.
TK got a bomb threat on flight to Moscow while it was over Hungarian airspace 2 days ago.
DeleteAko bi bilo potrebno da biram, Er Srbija bi bila ispred Ukraine. Er Srbija je deo mene. Ukraina je deo mojeg zaljenja za nevinim narodom koji strada. Bezi od bezumlja rata... Pola miliona Srba je proterano iz svojih kuca. Koliko ih je primila Ukraina, Rusija, Poljska?... Istine radi UK jeste. Kanada, USA, Australia takodje. Kao i mnoge ns slovenske zemlje u Evropi.
ReplyDeleteSto prije Rusko stanovnistvo bilo bezbedno i izjednaceno sa Ukraincima, i mir bice blizi.
To ce odluciti ko pristane na dogovor i mir.
Sada je ostala cinjenica. Er Srbija leti.
Zivela Er Srbija! 😀🛫🌐✈🇷🇸✈
Rodney Marinkovic and Aviation Enthusiast Associate Group ✈
Sydney Australia. 🛫
What an utter bulls.... of a comment.
Delete