Routing question
Whilst idly watching one of the many hobbyist flight trackers a while back, I noticed two flights with somewhat unusual flightpaths.
a) Went from UK Midlands, through London TMA, Dover to Calais, then hugging the coast to N Germany, then Denmark and onto Sweden at 25,000ft mostly. It seemed like a very convoluted routing. It was an old Russian Antonov and I assumed that maybe they didn't trust it over water!
b) Went from SW UK out over Norfolk and didn't touch land again until nearly Oslo again at +/-25,000ft. Bearing in mind this was a single engine prop, albeit a high performance machine, would this very direct overwater routing not be seen as high-risk, especially in winter ?
I'm assuming that such routings are at the discretion of the PIC and are accommodated by ATC, or is the opposite the case ? Thanks for any answers!