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Taking great care to avoid the rod that goes through from the north pole to the south that the globe spins around.
That and there are extra flight regulations for flights passing directly over the north pole due to the harsh conditions. Airlines tend to prefer going around unless going over is worth the effort.
It's because their compasses don't work there and they might accidentally get turned around or end up in the south pole.
Oh the good innocent days where videos on the hollow earth theory were the worst thing to happen on the internet.
Must be an older route or someone friendly with Russia. US and some other flights do not operate through Russian airspace.
Yeah, Emirates might use this route. But US airlines would avoid Russia, Ukraine, Iran, and Syria, which forces then to fly much longer and approach over Iraq and across the Gulf.
Worth it to avoid getting MH17'd
Emirates is still flying over Russia
https://www.alternativeairlines.com/airlines-flying-over-russian-airspace
Which airline is that? A lot of Western airlines are going out of their way to avoid flying over Russian airspace these days, adding hours to the flights.
Guessing solely based on the destination, I'd say Emirates.
Also, the reason why Greenland is so important for the USA. The shortest distance between Russia and USA goes through it
Looks like that route would go through Canada as well, but you could avoid all that by taking a canoe from Alaska.
I remember when Sarah Palin could see Russia from her backyard. Such innocent times. 😒
If you changed the destination to NY instead of San Francisco, it's more or less a straight line. Thenothe way around is through Alaska.
Also why bothe the regions have had massive defence value for the USA and have historical had a lot of military bases there
Never realised the Arctic circle was quite so round
/s just in case the joke doesn't land
What’s that strange curve in Russia? Trying to avoid flying over something specific?
That would be the Ural mountains.
There are several trans-continental routes crossing Russia (N/S, most ending at Aktobe, Kazakhstan, continuing to Dubai), most of them are grouped either on the west or the east side of the Urals.
What would happen if you flew over the mountains anyway? Would the turbulence spill your coffee or something worse?
Either ATC would have you copy a phone number, or the military would send you a high-explosive welcome package. Not sure which is worse.
I don't know exactly why, but there's a conspicuous lack of navigation waypoints over the Urals. It's probably not a safe idea to have aircraft cross over a mountain range when it can be avoided. Most of the airways cross directly west-to-east.
Checking the map here, maybe they're going well around Moscow airspace? Also, if they were to take a straighter shot from Greenland today, they'd be flying through an active war zone, that's surely worth avoiding.
Wasn’t there this one civilian flight that got shot by a missile when it went over a warzone? I recall hearing some news about it like 10 years ago. Can’t remember who shot them though.
That would be Malaysian Airlines 17, shot down by a Russian surface-to-air missile over Donetsk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17
Yeah, that’s the one. Sounds like a good idea to steer clear of war zones.
I think the most direct path would be over Ukraine and they're going around so the curve is to come back in? Just a guess.
It's avoiding the Ural mountains. Even straightening out that curve on the southward leg of the route would still only pass over the Caspian sea, which is still quite far from Ukraine
I thought that it could be mountains, but I couldn’t seen any on the map.
Our poor planet. We just dump carbon into it at ridiculous levels and act like it's normal. How many people from San Fran really have to be in Dubai? Just ridiculously selfish and shortsighted.
While I agree about dumping carbon up there, Dubai is Emirates' hub, so people going from anywhere in Asia to San Francisco and vice-versa have connections flights at Dubai.
Few people have it as a destination. Most passengers will be Asians visiting family in the US or going home from the US.
Idk, the travel we all take for granted comes at a price. I don't want anyone to not see their family. But global warming is here, it's a bitch, and it isn't going to get fairer. Al Gore said it best, it's an inconvenient truth....
Wonder how long a train journey would take between the two if there was a bridge between Russia and US.
Still remember being a kid and studying a globe for the first time. My brain melted seeing Russia and US were so close to each other. God I was stupid.
You were a kid, not stupid, these are the ideas that push boundaries don't feel bad for having them.
Yea, I didn't take that (or something similar to it) as feeling dumb. I took it as finding out something new. And I've been chasing that high ever since.
See any Aurora?
this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2025
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