The great Russian Il-76 over Poland again. How is this possible?

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A large part of Europe cut economic ties with Russia in connection with the attack on Ukraine. Among the sanctions is the closure of European airspace to Russian aircraft. So why did the Iliuszyn Il-76 plane registered in Russia by Volga Dnepr from Ulyanovsk, a company that specializes in charter flights, fly through Polish airspace to land on Thursday in the Slovak capital, Bratislava?

The energy sector in which Europe is still heavily dependent on Russia. Although there was no official explanation for the purpose of Thursday’s flight, another Il-76 from the same airline landed in Slovakia on March 1, when airspace was already officially closed. Fuel for two Slovak nuclear power plants.

The minister also said that his ministry had cooperated with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enable transportation on the basis of a special flight permit, which might also show the itinerary of yesterday’s flight, first via Belarus and then via Poland. It can be assumed that this is not the last “special flight” of this kind.

The special permit is ten-year-old Iliuszyn Il-76, registered as RA-76511. It began on March 17 at 00.54 from the mineral waters of Stavropol Krai (MRV) to Moscow (DME). He stayed there until 20.16, then took a 2hr 14min flight to Bratislava (BTS). It is scheduled to return to Moscow on Saturday 19 March at 2 pm

Photo: flightradar24.com

Iła-76 route from Moscow to Bratislava

However, this is not the same plane that flew a little more than two weeks ago. At the time, according to FlightRadar24, RA-76511 was busy traveling between places like Bridgetown in Barbados, Tsartanana Airport in Madagascar, Portsmouth in New Hampshire in the United States, and even the landing site of the NASA shuttle in Florida.

According to the portal world-nuclear.org Every year, about 15 million shipments of radioactive materials are shipped around the world. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued international regulations for its transfer since 1961, and they were last updated in 2018. And while about 440 nuclear reactors operate in 32 countries, uranium is mined by only 30 countries—many without their own nuclear power plants. . In the case of air transport, IAEA regulations state that radioactive materials must be stored in so-called Type C enclosures. They must remain weatherproof after impact at a speed of 90 m/s (which corresponds to a fall from a height of 450 m).