Politician Bypasses Preflight Security Checkpoint, Prompting Moscow-Bound Jet To Divert

Credit: Simple Flying Published Nov 4, 2026, 11:42 AM EST Louis is a military historian and the staff writer for History of War magazine, a leading military history monthly. He also has an interest in private and commercial aviation. Sign in to your Simple Flying account An Air Serbia jet bound for Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) has turned back to Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG), allegedly because a political associate of the former Serbian president failed to go through the necessary security checks. The media in Serbia are reporting that security camera footage was reviewed while the jet was in the sky, showing that Aleksandar Vulin was helped to avoid security. Vulin is a pro-Russia Serbian politician. He was Serbia's deputy prime minister until 2025. Vulin and other associates of recently ousted Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić were aboard the flight. Here's How Far The Flight Got Credit: Simple Flying The flight disrupted was JU134 on November 3, which Air Serbia was operating with an Airbus A320 (YU-APH). This flight from BEG to SVO is 1,074 miles (1,730 km) long. The Air Serbia A320 took off at 6:25 PM and was scheduled to land at 11:40 PM. This is a block time of three hours and 15 minutes given the time difference. JU134 took off at 6:48 PM. However, having traveled through Slovakia and Poland, it turned around while in the skies over Lithuania just 90 minutes after takeoff, before flying back to Belgrade. The jet took this route going almost perfectly north and back south to avoid the dangerous airspace over Ukraine. The jet landed safely back in Belgrade at 9:57 PM Belgrade time. It had been in the skies for a little over three hours, but was no closer to its Russian destination. The Political Fallout Is Only Just Starting For a flight to be diverted mid-flight over a security issue relating to a high-profile national politician is highly unusual, made more problematic by the febrile political atmosphere in Serbia after the toppling of a controversial regime. Vulin is a particularly divisive figure both domestically and internationally, who had been sanctioned by the US in 2023 because of his ties with Russia. He runs the small Movement of Socialists party and was officially decorated by Vladimir Putin in 2024. Vulin has gone on Serbian national TV and firmly denied that he was the reason for the diversion and has pointed to the settling of political scores as the cause. One Mile at a Time reports that he said: “It’s all a lie, an act of violence and an attempt to prove to these new authorities how ready they are here at the airport, how much they are on the defensive of their ideology. So, of course it’s all a lie, of course it’s all utter nonsense." Vulin also claimed that he was taking the trip to Moscow for business. He said he planned to be in the country to extend a gas agreement between Russia and Serbia in his capacity as the chairman of Srbjiagas. The firm is Serbia's state-owned gas company. Events After The Diversion Once the aircraft was back in Belgrade, delays followed, with the aircraft finally taking off at 1:56 AM. It landed in Moscow at 6:43 AM local time for a total flight time of seven hours. "​The company acted in accordance with ​the instructions of the competent authorities and all applicable procedures," Reuters reports that the airline said. AeroTelegraph reports that Vulin has claimed that the security checks after touchdown found nothing illegal. He has also claimed that everything about him and his possessions was "inspected" and "verified" prior to the flight. Air Serbia has also distanced itself from responsibility for the delays. It has emphasized the security checks conducted on passengers and their baggage is not the airline's responsibility, but the domain of airport security services. The carrier has also not yet named the passenger that the security issue related to, or confirmed whether that individual was Vulin.