Last winter we discussed the strange routings taken by An-12s between Doncaster and Gothenburg - via overhead Newcastle!
This example from last night is taking things to extremes: An Il-76 from Bourgas to Algiers. Via overhead Luxembourg. I'm not joking. At one point between Luxembourg Airport and the French border it was actually flying at a >180 degree angle to its heading over Hungary.
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/a...412th#1ce7148b
There seem to be a couple of errors in FR24s tracking of the flight: there's a straight line south of Bourgas that looks erroneous, and the flightpath peters out north of Algeria. But I followed it over Luxembourg in real time and it did take this routing (too much coffee and a hayfever remedy that seems to be keeping me awake at nights
).
What's going on? Looking at the aircraft's previous routings, there do seem to be certain countries it doesn't like flying over. Judging by its routing from Ankara to Madrid and back again a few days ago, it doesn't like Albania for some reason. But Greece and Turkey don't look to be a problem.