Russian pilots have been barred from taking photos and videos during flights according to a report by the aviation-focused Telegram channel Aviatorshchina. According to the channel, Russia’s Transport Ministry has instructed airlines to notify employees of the ban and to brief flight crews that they are now prohibited from filming the airspace outside the aircraft.
The decision was made in July after a meeting chaired by Russia’s Deputy Transport Minister Vladimir Poteshkin, who oversees the aviation sector. Aviatorshchina said the meeting focused on flight safety in the Moscow terminal control area, which covers air traffic around the Russian capital’s airports.
In late July, the Kremlin-aligned business newspaper Kommersant reported that Rosaviatsiya, Russia’s civil aviation agency, had lowered the maximum flight altitude near Moscow airports to 4,900 meters, down from the previous range of 8,250-8,550 meters, and banned transit flights over Moscow and the surrounding Moscow Region. The restrictions were explained on safety grounds amid ongoing Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure.
In February, Karen Novitsky, a pilot with the Novosibirsk-based airline S7, wrote on his Telegram channel that the company had banned crew members from “taking photos or videos while the aircraft is taxiing, taking off, or landing.”
