• Nougat
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      1312 days ago

      Checking the map here, maybe they’re going well around Moscow airspace? Also, if they were to take a straighter shot from Greenland today, they’d be flying through an active war zone, that’s surely worth avoiding.

    • @[email protected]
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      3312 days ago

      That would be the Ural mountains.

      There are several trans-continental routes crossing Russia (N/S, most ending at Aktobe, Kazakhstan, continuing to Dubai), most of them are grouped either on the west or the east side of the Urals.

      • @[email protected]
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        312 days ago

        What would happen if you flew over the mountains anyway? Would the turbulence spill your coffee or something worse?

        • @[email protected]
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          12 days ago

          Either ATC would have you copy a phone number, or the military would send you a high-explosive welcome package. Not sure which is worse.

          I don’t know exactly why, but there’s a conspicuous lack of navigation waypoints over the Urals. It’s probably not a safe idea to have aircraft cross over a mountain range when it can be avoided. Most of the airways cross directly west-to-east.

    • @[email protected]
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      412 days ago

      I think the most direct path would be over Ukraine and they’re going around so the curve is to come back in? Just a guess.

      • Skua
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        912 days ago

        It’s avoiding the Ural mountains. Even straightening out that curve on the southward leg of the route would still only pass over the Caspian sea, which is still quite far from Ukraine