A Moscow-bound Air Serbia flight spent more than three hours in the air only to land right back where it began, after airport authorities flagged a security issue with one passenger aboard.
Flight JU134, an Airbus A320, left Belgrade at 6:48 PM on November 3 and made it as far as southern Lithuania before being ordered to return. The aircraft touched back down in the Serbian capital shortly before 10:00 PM. The airline confirmed only that airport authorities had requested additional security checks concerning a single passenger and that it acted on instructions received.
Serbian media named that passenger as Aleksandar Vulin, the country's former intelligence chief, alleging he had been helped to board without completing the required security screening. According to reports, Belgrade airport's corporate security director ordered the U-turn after reviewing surveillance footage. Vulin rejects that version of events entirely: he says he passed all required checks, carried nothing prohibited, and is being targeted for political reasons after his pro-Russian party lost a snap election last month. He was travelling, he says, for talks on Serbia's gas arrangement with Russia.
Back on the ground, all passengers and their luggage went through extra screening. The flight eventually departed again with a replacement crew and reached Moscow roughly seven hours late — with Vulin still aboard. Belgrade's Higher Public Prosecutor's Office has now asked for an investigation into the whole affair: whether procedures were followed, who authorised the aircraft's return, and what security assessment supported that decision.
For travellers, the story is a reminder of how messy the boundary between aviation security and politics can get — and that even a cleared aircraft can end up back at its departure gate. Practically, it also highlights the value of building slack into tight itineraries on routes where geopolitical sensitivity is high, such as Belgrade–Moscow. If you're connecting onward in Moscow or Belgrade, a seven-hour slip is enough to miss a lot of things; travel insurance and flexible bookings earn their keep here.
The questions at the heart of the case remain open. Either a VIP got an improper shortcut through screening — which would raise serious accountability issues at Belgrade airport — or a full plane was turned around for reasons not yet explained. The inquiry should settle which it is. Either way, the passengers on JU134 did nothing wrong and still arrived in Moscow well past midnight.
