Entry Clearance Refused
Not too long ago I experienced the most stressful 30 minutes of a 39 year commercial flying career. We were overflying Russian airspace and approaching the Mongolian FIR boundary at about 0200Z, out of Milan enroute to Tokyo.VHF contact was not established with the Mongolian controller until about 60nm (7 minutes) from the boundary. Our entry clearance number was passed, with the response 'standby', followed a minute later by a refusal of entry as our clearance was 'not valid'.We made repeated requests for a re-check as the miles ticked down to the boundary, to no avail, and at 10nm executed a sharp 180 turn back along our route. The next 20 minutes were passed under the highest workload I can remember, the initial actions being to get the speed back to reduce the turn radius, obtaining a descent clearance to avoid opposite traffic, negotiating with both Russian and Mongolian controllers and trying to make sense of our options.
It's another story to describe how we eventually resumed our flightplan route, but does anyone know just what option are permissible when routeing off flightplan in Russia/Mongolia/China?
My initial thoughts were of three options:
1. Find a way to get a clearance into Mongolia ( this worked eventually but only by luck and bluff)
2. Route back to Western Europe or base, land and think about it.
3. Ask for a re-route over northern Russia, with a tech stop for refuelling somewhere on the Eastern Steppe.
In disussing this incident since, a variety of opinions have not provided a definitive answer to what options were available.
1.There is a belief that if a valid overflight clearance has been issued, a boundary controller cannot refuse entry and I should have just continued as planned.
2.Apparently Russian airspace overflights can only enter and leave by the flightplan defined entry/exit points and I could only have retraced our route back to our entry point - true, or not?
3. Could I have replanned out of my problem by flying North and East across Russia. Would the Russian system have accepted such a re-routing?
If any navigation department can provide an accurate answer to the above, I can retire happy.