St. Petersburg airport suspends flights twice overnight Saturday over drone threat

On the morning of Saturday, January 4, the "Carpet" air safety protocol was put in place at the Pulkovo International Airport (LED) in St. Petersburg.

This was reported by the ASTRA Telegram channel, Ukrinform saw.

The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency announced flight traffic restrictions in the area.

"To ensure the safety of civil aviation flights, temporary restrictions have been introduced at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport from 07:45 Moscow time today. Inbound and outbound flights have been suspended. Crews, air traffic operators, and airport ground services are taking all necessary measures to ensure flight safety, which is the main priority," the statement said.

The airport was shut down a few hours earlier during an UAV attack, local media reported.

In particular, the governor of the Leningrad region, Alexander Drozdenko, wrote on his Telegram channel in the early hours of Saturday that a drone had been detected in the area of ​​the Luga Bay of the Gulf of Finland. It was shot down by Russian air defenses, with no damage on the ground or casualties reported.

The SHOT Telegram channel notes that this morning, six planes that were about to land remained in the waiting area in the Ladoga Lake area. Among them are flights from Cherepovets, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Samara, Novosibirsk, and Perm. The restrictions were imposed tentatively due to the threat of a UAV attack.

As Ukrinform reported, on December 31, Russia reported a fire at an oil depot in Smolensk region and suspended operations at Vladikavkaz airport amid drone attacks.