An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-96-300 was sent to the US to pick up Russian spies. Credit: Kirill Naumenko, CC BY-SA 3.0/WikipediaA plane Russia sent to the US to pick up 13 expelled Russian diplomats, accused of being spies, is returning back to Russia on Monday according to flight tracking information.
The plane, an Ilyushin Il-96, left Moscow en route to St. Petersburg on Friday night and arrived at Dulles Airport outside Washington at 2:10 p.m. local time on Saturday.
After a flight on Sunday afternoon to New York’s JFK airport, the plane left for Moscow at 7:32 p.m. on Sunday night, a flight of 4,700 miles. It is due to land in Russia at around 1:30 p.m. Moscow time on Monday.
President Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union on Tuesday that American airspace was closed to Russian planes, but the U.S. government is making an exception so the expelled Russians can go home.
