The flights were en route to Saint Petersburg and Moscow, but the pilots were eventually ordered to turn around. The plane to Saint Petersburg returns to Amsterdam and the plane on its way to Moscow diverts to another city, a spokeswoman said.
The immediate reason is that, as a result of the sanctions package that has been agreed in a European context, spare aircraft parts may no longer be sent to Russia, not even for their own use. This means that we can no longer guarantee that flights to Russia can return safely. What this means for flights after today and flights that were planned to fly over Russia is currently being investigated,” said KLM.
The Flightradar24 app shows that flight KL903 to Moscow, which had left Amsterdam shortly before 12:00, had almost reached its destination and then turned around. The aircraft destined for Saint Petersburg (flight number KL1395) had taken off just after 13:00 and made a U-turn over Estonia.