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!

I know a couple of our old 146s weren't allowed to operate further than 50nm from land. Something to so with ditching and the outflow valve. Flight plans would be filed accordingly.

Could be something like that I suppose.

Overflight permissions maybe?

Until recently we had non deviating open skies flights.....they followed very specific routes.
They were usually Antonov type equipment.

In terms of single engines over long stretches of water...if that's what the aircrew file...that's up to them.



Defense Treaty Inspection Readiness Program | Open Skies Treaty

A little clarification.

I presume the original route was DVR KOK and then a turn was made to SPY then DHE.
Possibly originally requested REFSO SPY but due to flow restrictions KOK SPI NOR but then accepted back onto his original route?

EW has it right

EW, Open Skies flights still occur.