What happens when you're flying your plane and a bunch of countries tell you
you're not allowed to fly over their airspace?
It sounds a little bit like this.
Aeroflot 111 heavy, Moncton Center, good day.
Just making sure you are aware of NOTAM R.
Could you repeat last part of your message?
Air traffic control versus pilots.
Coming up!
Hey, 74 crew! Welcome back!
If you don't know me, my name's Kelsey.
I'm a 747 pilot.
My channel, 74 gear, is all about aviation.
Now, something I never considered before I was a pilot,
was that when we are flying over another country,
that country owns that airspace.
So as a plane crosses into each new country's airspace,
that airline is going to have to pay a fee for flying over that country.
The airline will have to get permission from that country to fly over the country.
And they're also going to have to pay that country
money for flying over that country.
There have been times when I'm flying, as you know,
I go to a lot of random places in the world,
and sometimes we'll make a line to stay out of the country.
Sometimes I think it's because it's cheaper
to pay the extra gas to fly outside
that country's airspace.
Sometimes it's political and I don't really get involved in all that,
but it is interesting to see sometimes what looks like would be a more straight
line is actually going away from another country.
And you're not having to pay that airspace fee.
But earlier this year,
airlines started banning Russian carriers from flying over their airspace.
And it wasn't like,
Hey guys, in a few days,
you're not going to be allowed to fly over our country anymore.
It was just an immediate.
You're no longer allowed to fly into our airspace.
And this is what happened to the crew
when they found out that they weren't allowed to fly into that airspace anymore.
Listen what happens.
Moncton Center, good evening, Aeroflot 111 heavy at FL350 CPDLC.
Aeroflot 111 heavy, Moncton Center, good day.
Just making sure you are aware of NOTAM R.
Could you repeat last part of your message?
Aeroflot 111 heavy, just making sure you are aware of NOTAM R.
Aeroflot 111, roger.
A term you may not be familiar with is CPDLC.
Listen to what he says here.
Moncton Center, good evening, Aeroflot 111 heavy at FL350 CPDLC.
CPDLC stands for Controller Pilot Data Link Communications.
Think of it like Tinder.
While we're flying, we can hit a couple buttons.
And then we request permission to talk to them via text message on our plane.
They can accept it.
And then we're able to text back and forth or they can deny it.
And then we're not able to text back and forth.
And this is what it looks like here.
You can see right here, they accept their request,
which means the messages can now be sent back and forth.
With that now accepted request,
we can request different altitudes that way,
we can request deviations that way,
we can request or just send a direct message to them.
And we can do all that through that CPDLC system.
Now, if they deny your request, you're not able to send a message back and forth.
So that's why I say it's like Tinder.
But when you check in with a new controller,
what you do is you check in with them and you tell them,
Hey, we're on CPDLC.
And that lets them know, instead of, if they're busy,
instead of sending a voice message to you, which is what you normally listen to
when you listen to air traffic control,
they can just send a direct message to your plane.
And now I like that because it eliminates the possibility of confusion.
If you're reading the message,
it's a lot more clear than possibly hearing something and mishearing it.
And so when they send it to you, it's just like a regular audio transmission.
They send it to you and you have to accept it.
And then they'll say,
let's say, for example, climb to flight level 380.
You'll say, I accept we'll climb to 380.
And then they will say report maintaining 380.
So you'll arm something in the plane.
So when you get the 380,
it will automatically send a message to them.
And so they know you've accepted it. You've climbed there.
And then you've reported that you're there
and that's how that CPDLC system works.
Now, this is the interesting part of this video.
Aeroflot 111 heavy, Moncton Center, good day.
Just making sure you are aware of NOTAM R.
NOTAM used to mean Notice To Airmen.
But now it means Notice To Air Missions.
And it's information that you need as a pilot in order to safely complete a flight.
It can be something small and minor,
or it could be something major.
Like you're not allowed to fly over our airspace.
And that's what happened here to the Russian aircraft.
This is a picture of the NOTAM that I found on the internet.
So I don't know if it's factual.
TikTok has clearly created some real trust issues for me
when it comes to information on the internet.
But this is the key point here in the document.
All aircraft owned,
chartered or operated or otherwise controlled
by person connected with Russia
or which is registered in Russia
and all operators holding an air operator certificate
issued by the Russian Federation Authorities
are prohibited to enter, exit or overfly Canada's airspace.
What that means is if you are a Russian carrier,
you can't fly into or out of Canada's airspace.
And that's a problem.
We, as pilots, get something called overfly permits.
This is what it looks like.
We get a big stack of papers before we go out to the plane.
And this is an example of the section
that gives us permission to overfly certain countries.
When you're an international pilot,
sometimes what you have to do is call ahead to a country before you get there.
Sometimes it's 5 minutes, sometimes it's 15 minutes,
but you call ahead and let them know,
Hey, we're 15 minutes away.
We're planning to be into your country's airspace
in this time.
Sometimes what will happen is they will say,
you don't have an overly permit.
You're not permitted to enter our airspace.
Sometimes that information gets to you during that call.
Sometimes it's before you even get there.
But if you don't have permission to go into their airspace,
well, you're not allowed to go in there.
What happens then is that you would hold
and basically start doing circles
before you enter that country's airspace.
And this has happened before.
You would start doing turns in the country that you're in at that time.
And then you would call your airline and say,
Hey, we don't have permission,
or they're not giving us permission to enter this country.
What do you want us to do?
At that point, your airline will start making the appropriate calls
to whoever they need to call, to get the permission.
And once they get that permission,
they'll send you a message inside your plan to let you know,
and that will get relayed to air traffic control.
It happens pretty fast because as you can imagine,
you're flying circles in the sky.
Jet fuel is expensive.
They want to get this resolved very quickly.
The thing is if it takes too long,
you need to be able to safely complete your flight.
If you spend too much time circling,
you may not safely be able to get to your destination.
So you have to stop somewhere and it can get very expensive, very fast.
So that's something they want to resolve obviously before you even take off.
But there have been cases where you've thought everything was set up
and then you're started on your flight and before you get to that border,
you get told you're not allowed to enter.
And when you're on the flight deck and you get a call that sounds like this
Aeroflot 111 heavy, Moncton Center, good day.
Just making sure you are aware of NOTAM R.
What happens on the flight deck
when a call comes up like that is both pilots look at each other
and then they reach for the paperwork.
There was actually a long pause,
which I cut out because it wasn't really relevant,
but what's happening is those pilots are looking through those NOTAM's quickly
trying to find NOTAM Romeo.
But it may not have been in their paperwork
when they took off because the rule
maybe hadn't come down,
hadn't got published.
Hadn't made it all the way to the Russian dispatchers.
The dispatchers who you never really hear about as a passenger
is the secret person that's on the team.
Guy or girl that's back there that's helping coordinate everything for us.
They are our person on the ground,
our boots on the ground
that can get us information that we need really quickly.
And so that dispatcher is going to have to find out what's going on.
So what I do when I'm in flight and something happens,
that's changed that I didn't know about.
Let's say, a volcano has exploded,
the first thing that I do instead of trying to figure out where that ash is,
I say, Sigma,
whatever the number or name or whatever they're calling it,
what's going on with this? Does this impact us?
Now there's two reasons I do that.
One, the dispatcher has a regular computer
and internet and can quickly access that information.
See what's going on right at that exact minute
and see if it's going to impact our flight.
And two, that lady or that guy that is there,
they are part of your crew.
So they need to be brought in the loop
as far as what's going on and help you make a decision.
If they see something that says,
Hey, that looks like it's going to be dangerous.
You shouldn't do that.
Or you should go up or over or whatever advice they give you.
You can heed that advice.
At the end of the day,
it's the pilot's decision of what we are going to do because
we are there and we have to make that final decision,
but they are absolutely part of your crew.
And they're something you should always bring in the loop.
And so the easiest way for me to bring them in is say,
what's going on with this thing.
And then they can,
because they may not be aware of it.
Because they're dispatching for multiple planes
and you might be going to one area and then another plane might be going
a totally different area.
So they may not be aware of that thing that just happened 10 minutes ago.
So that's how I typically bring them in.
What I do is I get to this screen and this message here,
and I just send,
Hey, what's going on with this situation?
You would get a message back from them that would say something like,
Hey, you can't fly over Canada's airspace anymore.
And now, while you are busy as a pilot doing pilot things
like annoying your flight attendants,
or trying to get the perfect selfie,
they could be working on getting you a new plan
of how to safely get to your destination.
Now, jokes aside,
this is actually a really busy time for pilot.
So it makes more sense for you as a pilot,
to be coordinating and safely flying your plane,
dealing with air traffic control and let your dispatchers help you
and assist you and figuring out a new plan, a plan B
of how to safely get you to your destination.
Because when you get ready to do an ocean crossing,
there's a lot of things that you need to do
and be paying attention to
because they want it very exact what you're doing,
because there is not the normal radar coverage like you have over land.
So the speed that you're going and the altitude that you're going
and all that stuff, it really matters.
So listen, what happens to this other crew.
Moncton, good evening, Aeroflot 157 heavy, FL380, CPDLC.
Aeroflot 157 heavy, Moncton Center, good day.
Just confirm you are aware of NOTAM R.
Aeroflot 157
Aeroflot 157, roger.
Center, Aeroflot 157 heavy, request.
Aeroflot 157, go ahead.
Aeroflot 157, flying eastbound to PORTI, and could you coordinate now
our options because our next point is 50N050W
and it seems there is no entry point
Aeroflot 157, PORTI should still be your entry point.
You can send your request to Gander electronically.
Aeroflot 157, can you tell me what your requested oceanic routing is?
Right now, these pilots are dealing with Moncton Center.
And typically, when you're crossing east going over to Europe,
you're going to end up dealing with Gander Center.
And that's why she's saying electronically
you can send the message over to Gander.
Listen here.
Aeroflot 157, PORTI should still be your entry point.
You can send your request to Gander electronically.
So the pilots are going to be dealing with Gander Center.
Once they get further out into the ocean
and Gander is going to be controlling that airspace
or dealing with them until they get to 30 west.
At 30 west, you'll switch over
and it could be a variety of different options of who you're going to deal with
when you cross over,
because it depends on how far north or south you are entering into
that European airspace.
So while you're working that problem out
while these pilots are working that out,
behind the scenes,
a dispatcher is trying to figure out a plan B.
I've had it A
safely get them there with enough fuel
and B how to get them there without going through Canada's airspace
or Europe's airspace
because they're not going to be allowed to go into either.
And that's tricky situation to work out
because as you take off,
you're not planning to have a massive reroute like that.
So it is possible that somebody at the airline or the dispatchers or somebody
knew that this could be happening very soon,
because that is a long way outside of the normal route.
That's what's called a random route.
When you're going across on a normal route,
it looks like this.
These lines here, think of them as roads in the sky to Europe or back.
And these things are called tracks.
And you can see just how far out of the way they're going
to get back into Russia.
Now had these pilots had something go wrong with their plane,
an emergency of sorts.
Could they have went to Europe or could they have went to Canada and landed?
Absolutely.
At the end of the day, I don't know what would've happened.
Maybe they would've seized the plane or who knows what would've happened,
but it's better to go land your plane and deal with that international incident
than say, oh no,
we don't want to land there because we're not allowed in that air space.
At the end of the day, it's better to land.
And even if you ended up in jail for a couple months,
it's better than ending up in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.
And as a comparison later on the night, I'm flying to Europe.
And this is an example of a typical flight path when you're flying over to Europe.
And when you compare my route to the route that they're going to end up flying,
you can see it's a lot of extra gas getting burned.
Which is not a fun experience for any of the pilots or any of the dispatchers or
any of the people dealing with this situation.
The next thing is is that you heard the pilot asking about his entry point
into the Atlantic.
Listen here.
And it seems there is no entry point
What the pilot is saying here is they don't have a point
in which they're going to cross into the Atlantic.
That's very important because you, as a pilot, are going to need that information
and that entry point
as you cross into the Atlantic.
There's coordination that happens.
Now, this is a very important when you're crossing on one of those tracks.
One of those colored roads in the sky on the way to Europe,
those are very important when you're on one of those,
because you're going to have multiple planes all flying along those roads.
Again because they're flying a random route, it's less important.
But still they're looking for that entry point into the Atlantic.
But as you can see right here,
they had PORTI
which is the entry point onto track X-ray.
Flying on a random route is something that I do all the time,
but it's not something that your typical airline pilot may do a lot.
You'll notice that a lot of times all the planes are going east over to Europe
or west over to the US all around the same time.
And they're flying along those tracks.
So those little colored lines there.
Everybody's flying on those and so there's a lot of coordination that happens
so that way people are at the right speed at the right altitude.
There's all these protocols in place to make sure that everybody's safe
as they make those journeys back and forth.
But on a random route is something you're going to fly,
for example,
if everybody's going east and good old Kelsey's flying west,
I'm going to be on a random route
because there's people all flying a specific direction
and you can't just have 747 guy just go in the exact opposite direction.
So you'll go on something random away from all those roads in the sky,
because I fly cargo or the passengers that I'm flying,
it's not a scheduled airline where people are like you might be riding on it.
I will often fly on a random route.
So there are different protocols
when you're doing that than when you're doing your tracks.
Your track flying, what's called a NAT track.
So here's all your normal planes
and then here's Kelsey doing a random route away from everybody else.
So they did have an entry point,
but it's possible with the confusion of everything that's going on,
the fact that they're doing a random route which
I don't think they do very often.
And all of that going on,
that they missed that PORTI was their entry point into the Atlantic.
Which is understandable as you have a weird workload increases,
you can miss and oversee certain things.
So I think they missed that point,
which is really not a big deal in the grand scheme of everything.
And they very much did the right thing here
By clarifying with air traffic control,
Hey, I don't think we have our entry point
and she's saying, no, you have it here, PORTI.
And so he's clarifying that.
And that's why I say it's always important to clarify,
ask two or three times and make sure that they understand and you understand,
and you guys all see everything exactly right.
That pilot did the right thing by clarifying that with the controller.
If you want to see some pilots who did not clarify something with controllers,
check out this video here.
And if you want to see some pilots who had a hard time flying their plane,
check out this video up here.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Until then,
keep the blue side up.