On May 8, after the Ukrainian attacks in the aggressor country, the largest air collapse during a full-scale war occurred, the “We Can Explain” project reported: due to a drone hitting the air navigation building in Rostov-on-Don, 13 airports in the south of the Russian Federation were forced to cease operations, hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed, and passengers were transported by trains.
In the morning, the Russian Ministry of Transport reported that due to the fall of a drone on the administrative building of the Aeronavigation branch in Rostov-on-Don, the work of airports in 13 cities (Astrakhan, Vladikavkaz, Volgograd, Gelendzhik, Grozny, Krasnodar, Makhachkala, Magas, Mineralnye Vody, Nalchik, Sochi, Stavropol, Elista) was stopped.
“We Can Explain” notes that problems in the operation of air transport began on May 5, and that night the situation worsened sharply. By morning alone, according to the Association of Tour Operators of the Russian Federation, more than 14 thousand Russians were stuck at airports. At the Moscow airports Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, by midday, more than 200 flights were canceled, and almost 400 more were delayed. Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo were hit the hardest, the project notes. Russian public pages showed videos of passengers sleeping on the floor.
At Vnukovo, where flights are now accepted and departed “in agreement with the relevant authorities,” passengers are forced to sit and lie directly on the floor. Some have been waiting for departure for more than a day, journalists reported. Turkish Airlines passengers told the Ministry of Defense that flights were rescheduled several times and then canceled just minutes before the skies closed. Many have still not received either compensation or clear instructions when their flight will take place.
After a drone attack, there was a fire in the air navigation building at night; the glazing on its upper floors was broken, local media reported. The Ministry of Transport confirmed damage to equipment and problems in the work of dispatchers and automation. The Federal Air Transport Agency initially issued a NOTAM suspending flights to southern airports until May 12, but soon lifted the ban.
Late in the evening, the Russian Ministry of Transport announced that airport operations had been resumed, but there were supposedly no crowds of passengers.
This collapse, according to the Agency, is comparable to that which occurred on the first day of a full-scale war, when more than 10 airports stopped operating due to the outbreak of hostilities. “We Can Explain” calls it the largest Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Passengers stuck at airports (some complained that they had been waiting for departure for more than a day) were transported, in particular, by trains – Russian Railways sold more than 10 thousand additional tickets.
The illegitimate Russian President Vladimir Putin convened the Security Council because of, as he said, “an act of a terrorist nature” committed by the “Kyiv regime” (and even the day before the May 9 parade planned in Moscow). He called a drone hit on the Rostov regional air traffic control center a “terrorist attack.” Because of today's arrival of drones at oil industry facilities in the Perm region, he was not indignant.
