The Crete registered Boeing 737-800 that violated Moldova’s airspace before landing in Chisinau without permission yesterday was eventually allowed to leave the Chisinau Airport at around 10:00 p.m. following hours of scrutiny. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says now it’s up for the law enforcement to decide whether the crew will face any criminal charges.
The CAA said in a press statement the Chisinau control tower learned of the approaching airliner in the afternoon shortly after the it took off from Bucharest.
About one hour after landing without beforehand permission, the Authority received a request from Spire Flight Solutions, a flight support services company, to let the aircraft depart from Chisinau. Per the request, the flight was operated by Aergen Aircraft Twelve Limited and the only people on board were two crew.
In its email response, the CAA reminded the requester that a set of documents were required to operate an international flight, which were eventually provided in part. They included a document issued by Austria which said the aircraft was fit to fly. However, in order to operate flights outside of the EU, additional approval is needed from the destination country, the CAA says.
Eventually, at 21:46, following searches by the Moldovan law enforcement, the CAA notified the control tower that the intruding Boeing was free to depart, which the aircraft did minutes later.
The Authority says these and other records will be forwarded to the law enforcement to determine whether the crew’s disregard for established rules amounted to criminal conduct. Also, the CAA has requested counterpart supervisory bodies from Austria and Romania to comment on the incident.