Air Serbia Flight Turns Back As Spy Onboard Accused Of Bypassing Security

An Air Serbia flight to Moscow made it as far as Lithuania before turning around and flying back to Belgrade, where everyone had to get off and go through security again. Reportedly Serbia’s former intelligence chief was allowed to board without completing security screening. He says he’s being targeted by political opponents. The flight eventually reached Moscow about seven hours late, with spy master Aleksandar Vulin still onboard. Flight JU134 departed Belgrade at 6:48 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3. The Airbus A320, registration YU-APH, turned back over southern Lithuania and landed back in Belgrade at 9:56 p.m. That’s more than three hours of flying to end up where passengers started. Flightradar24 tracks Air Serbia flight JU134 returning to Belgrade after turning around over Lithuania. Also onboard were Dušan Bajatović, who runs state gas company Srbijagas, and politician Nenad Popović. Bajatović. Everyone and their luggage went through another inspection. Passengers reboarded shortly before 2 a.m., and a replacement crew took over because of duty time limits. According to Belgrade’s Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office: Police contacted the duty prosecutor at 8:26 p.m. They described a passenger passing through the security area with an officer from Serbia’s intelligence agency without the required screening. A police memo received the next day added that the passenger had triggered an alarm and hadn’t received the additional inspection. Radio audio circulated by Serbian media includes the captain telling passengers the return was for security reasons, along with instructions to the crew after landing. Radio communication from the return of Air Serbia flight JU134, shared by journalist Žarko Bogosavljević. Vulin denies wrongdoing. He says he slept through the flight, woke up back in Belgrade, and found police waiting. His account includes asking them, “Colleagues, have you come for me?” He says they laughed and told him they hadn’t. He says he passed the checks, nothing illegal was found, and the whole thing was an attempt to impress the country’s incoming political leadership. His stated reason for going to Moscow was to seek an extension of Serbia’s gas agreement with Russia. He subsequently posted from Moscow denying that he’d fled Serbia. Aleksandar Vulin’s response after arriving in Moscow. Vulin has been Serbia’s defense minister, interior minister, intelligence chief and deputy prime minister. The United States sanctioned him in 2023, alleging corruption and assistance to Russian influence operations. His political ally Aleksandar Vučić’s side lost Serbia’s October 25 election. I’ve covered an American Airlines Charlotte–Cancun flight that returned after a former airline employee bypassed screening, so returning a flight over an unscreened passenger isn’t unique to Serbia. Here, though, the aircraft was much farther along. Returning to the airport that identified the problem puts the passenger, the screeners and the surveillance records under the same authorities. And it may be difficult (and embarrassing) to coordinate with a closer airport in another country to handle this and without the airline’s same presence on the ground. Belgrade’s prosecutor’s office is now seeking answers from the airport’s security director, including who ordered the return, what security assessment supported it, whether procedures were violated before departure, and who authorized the flight to leave again. (HT: One Mile at a Time) Topics on this page