According to the news website Baza, the cause would be an unknown object in the airspace and that a state of emergency called Kovjor had been declared in the area.
Heikki Heiskanen,
Vilma Romsi
10:36•Updated 11:57
St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport has temporarily suspended all flights on Tuesday morning. No reason was given, but according to unconfirmed reports, an unidentified object had been spotted in the city’s airspace.
The city of St. Petersburg announced that air traffic would be suspended until 12 o’clock, i.e. until 11 o’clock Finnish time. Air traffic has since been restored.
The news site Baza said on the Telegram messaging service that the cause would be an unidentified object in the airspace and that fighter jets would have been sent into the air to investigate it. However, according to Russian media, the fighters did not find anything.
According to Baza, a state of emergency called Kovjor would have been declared for the area and the airspace would have been closed in an area of 200 square kilometers in St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region. The Russian state news agency Tass said, based on an anonymous source, that the airspace would be closed until 1:20 p.m. local time. The airspace closure has been cancelled.
Fontanka news site (you will switch to another service) received the following answer from the St. Petersburg regional air traffic center when asked about the reason for the airspace restrictions: “Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you. But no, I don’t know.”
The official bodies have not publicly disclosed the reason for the suspension, and neither nor the news agency Reuter, which reported on the events, have been able to confirm the information. The Flightradar website shows that a number of domestic flights bound for St. Petersburg have turned back.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a press conference that the president Vladimir Putin was kept fully informed of the situation. Peskov also did not comment on the reasons for the suspension.
Source: Reuters
Updated on 28.2. 11:32 a.m.: Air traffic has been restored and the airspace closure has been cancelled.
Updated on 28.2. 11:56 am: Added Peskov’s comment.