An Air Serbia Airbus A320 bound for Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport turned back over Lithuania on the night of November 3 after Serbian security footage showed Aleksandar Vulin, a sanctioned pro-Russia politician, being helped around a preflight security checkpoint at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The aircraft, registered YU-APH, had already crossed Slovakia and Poland when authorities ordered flight JU134 home, and it landed back in Belgrade roughly three hours after departure without getting any closer to Russia.
How Flight JU134 Unfolded From Takeoff to Turnaround
The route from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG) to Sheremetyevo (SVO) covers 1,074 miles (1,730 km) and is normally flown in a block time of three hours and 15 minutes once the time difference is accounted for. JU134 was scheduled to push back at 6:25 PM and land at 11:40 PM, but it actually lifted off at 6:48 PM. Tracking data shows the jet heading almost perfectly north through Slovak and Polish airspace before making a sharp turn over Lithuania about 90 minutes after takeoff, a maneuver that avoided the closed and contested corridors above Ukraine, then retracing its path south to Belgrade.
By the time it touched down at 9:57 PM Belgrade time, the aircraft had spent a little over three hours in the air and had flown an entire out-and-back mission. Serbian media reported that security camera footage reviewed while the jet was still airborne showed Vulin, a political associate of recently ousted president Aleksandar Vučić, being shepherded past the mandatory preflight screening area. The airline did not identify the passenger at the center of the incident or confirm publicly whether that individual was Vulin.
Who Aleksandar Vulin Is and Why the Screening Breach Matters
Vulin is among the most polarizing figures in Serbian public life. He served as deputy prime minister until 2025, leads the small Movement of Socialists party, and was sanctioned by the United States in 2023 over his ties to Moscow. In 2024 he received an official decoration from Vladimir Putin, a distinction that made his presence on a Moscow-bound flight politically charged even before any security question arose. A politician of that profile passing unobserved through a screening checkpoint at a major European airport raises immediate questions about procedural discipline, insider facilitation, and who at the airport has the authority to wave a traveler past screening.
Vulin Denies Causing the Diversion and Cites Political Retaliation
Speaking on Serbian national television, Vulin flatly rejected the account and framed the turnaround as score-settling by the incoming authorities. “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,” he said, according to One Mile At A Time. He insisted that his trip to Moscow was purely business: he said he intended to extend a gas agreement between Russia and Serbia in his capacity as chairman of Srbijagas, the country’s state-owned gas company.
What Happened After the Jet Returned to Belgrade
Once back on the ground, the disruption stretched into the early hours. The aircraft finally departed Belgrade again at 1:56 AM and landed in Moscow at 6:43 AM local time, arriving a full night behind schedule. Air Serbia said in a statement obtained by Reuters that “the company acted in accordance with the instructions of the competent authorities and all applicable procedures.” Vulin claimed that post-landing checks found nothing illegal and that he and his belongings had been inspected and verified before departure, per AeroTelegraph.
The carrier has been careful to separate itself from the screening failure, emphasizing that passenger and baggage security checks at Serbian airports fall to airport security services, not the airline. The incident now sits at the intersection of aviation security, Serbian domestic politics, and Belgrade’s delicate balancing act between Brussels and the Kremlin, with no official finding yet explaining how a high-profile politician bypassed a checkpoint at one of the region’s busiest airports.
