Lithuanians refuse overflight to Russian flights due to failure to meet safety standards

Published: 7/5/1999

According to Baltic news agency, BNS, on July 1st 1999, Lithuania refused to let an aircraft with a Russian admiral on board enter its air space. Lithuanian diplomats attributed the refusal to the jet's failure to meet safety standards. An official of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry told BNS that: “When deciding on whether a permit to fly our air space should be issued or not, it is safety requirements that we take into consideration, not the people who are applying for it.” Lithuania has previously refused a permit to an aircraft, which was allegedly carrying Mr Vladimir Yegorov, commander of Russia's Baltic Fleet, to Moscow. The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry confirmed that 10 out of 20 applications made by Russian planes for flying across Lithuanian air space were turned down last week, mainly owing to their failure to satisfy the rules of using Lithuanian air space and the standards of the International Organisation of Civil Aviation. The most frequent reason for refusing a permit is the absence of radar transponders. The official from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said that Lithuania had, on several occasions reminded Russian diplomats and servicemen of the requirement that radar transponders must be present on aircraft. During the first half of 1999, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry received a total of 371 applications from the Russian Embassy and issued 541 permits for Russian planes to fly in Lithuanian air space, with only 169 of them being used. The denials to grant permits to 38 flights were attributed to the absence of radar transponders or inaccurate data on applications. None of the planes attempted to enter Lithuania without a permit.

Article ID: 659