- A Russian government aircraft flew nine hours between Moscow and Basel, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
- The route should only take about three hours — if European Union airspace were not closed to Russian planes.
- The jet flew over EU airspace with special clearance to retrieve Russian diplomatic staff in Switzerland.
Sanctions against Russia are still forcing aircraft to take long, creative routings around closed airspace.
On Wednesday, a Russian government aircraft flew nine hours between Moscow and Basel, Switzerland — a route that only takes about three hours without airspace restrictions, according to a Twitter post from flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
The Russian-built Ilyushin Il-96-300 aircraft, which is used to fly government officials and the president, per Swiss news outlet BZ, took off from Moscow at 10:27 a.m. and landed in Basel at 6:39 p.m. local time. That's 7:39 p.m. Moscow time.
The plane flew over Russia, Georgia, and Turkey before flying south over the Mediterranean Sea, avoiding Eastern European airspace. The jet then flew along the African coast before flying north across Tunisia and making the final leg over France and Switzerland.
Both nations closed their airspace to Russian aircraft shortly after the country invaded Ukraine in February as part of sanctions imposed to punish President Vladimir Putin.
According to Flightradar24, the French and Swiss governments gave the plane special permission to fly over their airspace, which can occur on a "case-by-case basis."
This specific flight was given a "diplomatic clearing" from both France and Switzerland so it could pick up Russian diplomatic staff that were representing the county at the Council of Europe (COE) in Strasbourg, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs told BZ.
In March, the COE, which upholds human rights in Europe, unanimously voted to expel Russia from the organization after 26 years of membership. The same day, the Russian government announced its withdrawal from the council.
"Russia's withdrawal from the Council of Europe means even foreigners whose rights have been violated by the Kremlin, can't submit a case against Russia," Natalia Prilutskaya, a researcher at Amnesty International focusing on Russia, told German media outlet Deutsche Welle in March.
After the Russian staff members were retrieved, the plane flew back to Moscow on another nine-hour journey, retracing its route home.
This is not the first aircraft forced to fly a creative route due to airspace restrictions in Russia and the European Union. In February, shortly after the invasion, Russian airline Aeroflot flew three extra hours between Moscow and Belgrade, Serbia, because it could not fly over EU airspace.
In March, Finland flag carrier Finnair detoured over the North Pole when flying between Helsinki and Tokyo to avoid Russian airspace — adding four hours to the journey.
The long detours are costly for airlines because they require more time and fuel to operate, leading to thousands of extra dollars spent, New York-based aviation consultant Robert Mann told ABC News in March.