nomadabroad

God forbids this happens but given that overlying Eastern Russia is now the norm for JFK-HKG, what happens supposedly when there is an emergency over Russia….with a plane full of US citizens ?

Diversion to the nearest airport in Russia? Or would the CX protocol be to continue flying until the nearest diversion airport in Mongolia/China?

SW7London

Would depend on how serious the diversion is....a fire within the plane and they'll land at the nearest airport with a long piece of tarmac.

A medical emergency ? The Captain has to take into account the wellbeing and safety of all other passengers so they may take a longer time to divert even if there are closer alternatives within Russia.

That being said, I doubt Russia would really do anything bad to a planeload of US passengers. I also think Russia would treat any issues with the Chinese carriers + Cathay much better than any western airline (ie I could just see "paperwork" delays being a reason to hold a British Airways plane if they still flew over Russia and needed to divert!)

LHSEN

I‘d think they‘d purposely accommodating and will do no harm to do some positive publicity … Also likely the full plane full of US citizens are also dual Hong Kong / Chinese citizens.

Singapore_Air

Given how evil Russia's leadership is, not sure why you'd risk it.

oldchinahand

With the Russian airlines often overflying countries where there aircraft would be unwelcome but not badly treated if they needed to land due to an emergency it is unlikely in my view that aircraft (and its civilian passengers) needing to land in Russia in a dire emergence would not come to much harm. Also of course the routing taken by Cathay ex New York when headwinds are too strong to use the pacific route is only necessary for a short period in the year and the routing crosses the far eastern part of Russia, a long way from the conflict zone in the west. The most northerly alternate would be Astana in Kazakhstan a rather more welcoming country . Using this polar route at certain times of the year is commercially necessary as it eliminates the possibility of having to make a technical stop for a change of aircrew due to flight time limits. It seems that United are unwilling to use this necessary routing out of JFK to HKG at this time of year and have thus not yet restarted there flights. Will they ?

cpdc1030

UA fly out of EWR, and in any case they don’t have a choice, they aren’t allowed to overfly Russia even if they wanted to.

Nicc HK

Why only US citizens?

danielflyer

My guess is they would avoid landing in Russia unless an imminent risk to life existed. I would be surprised if Cathay’s insurers would provide coverage to the plane while on the ground in Russia. In addition, business transactions on the ground (loading fuel, paying landing fees, feeding pax, etc) would be difficult to do under sanctions.

That being said Russia would be likely to treat a Cathay plane well. You can bet they would check the flight manifest thoroughly, however, and would almost certainly arrest any high-profile dissidents on board.

I personally would be fine taking the risk but would rather not support an airline paying flyover fees to Russia.

nas6034

While not CX I believe AI overflies Russian airspace from/to the US.

oldchinahand

S-S I am not at all sure that I would be comfortable overflying Russia at this time ether but of course it seems that somewhere close to half of the worlds major airlines ae paying overflying rights .
Is not EWR not still in New York though cpdc ?

LHSEN

I do wonder, why CX does not overfly Russia for EU flights … but completely avoiding it.

nomadabroad

because the original flight path for HK-EU flights takes them directly over Western Russia (close to the conflict zone)….which is a no go.

danielflyer

If given the choice I would rather not support a regime that is commiting so many human rights abuses.

Obviously this isn’t always possible for everyone in every situation. I just can’t imagine telling someone who lost a loved one in Ukraine (Russian or Ukrainian), suffered torture, lost their home, etc. that I chose to pay the overflight rights so I could save three hours when so many people are sacrificing so much more.

StevenSeagalFan

Northwest Airlines diverted to Tehran and there were no issues.

Cambo

Indeed, Russia would carefully check the manifest and get everybody out, they are interested in, including Russians having fled the country to avoid being enlisted. Not to say, they may not even "use" the manifest, though require passengers to go through immigration, request a "special" visa, etc. And Beijing isn't going to object against this. Not, to say, expect them to do the same in a similar situation.