Air Serbia passengers on eight-hour flight to nowhere

NEWS FLASH

Air Serbia’s flight from Belgrade to Guangzhou was forced to divert back to Nikola Tesla Airport mid-air earlier today due to the closure of Guangzhou Airport as Super Typhoon Ragasa, the strongest storm on earth this year, heads towards China. Guangzhou Airport has cancelled all flights until Wednesday evening, similar to others nearby, including Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macau. Cathay Pacific has evacuated its aircraft from its home base. Air Serbia’s passengers bound for Guangzhou took off from Belgrade just after seven in the morning yesterday local time. However, after crossing the Caspian Sea and entering Kazakhstan, the Airbus A330-200 was forced to return back to the Serbian capital. In total, passengers spent close to eight and a half hours in the air.

Such scenarios are not uncommon in the aviation industry. Earlier this year, a Qantas flight from Perth to Paris was forced to return back to Australia following the abrupt closure of airspace across the Middle East, with passengers enduring a fifteen hour flight back to their city of departure. Last November, a British Airways plane turned around while halfway across the Atlantic Ocean meaning passengers endured a nine-hour flight to nowhere.