Chinese airline denies flying over restricted airspace

A Chinese airline company Tuesday denied Russian media reports that four of its planes had entered restricted airspace above Seversk City in Southeast Russia's Tomsk state, where Russia's largest nuclear facilities are located.

The planes were at least 10 kilometers away from forbidden airspace above Seversk, an anonymous official from the airline company claimed to the Global Times Tuesday.

"Civil aircraft will not drift off the course provided by local national air traffic control departments," said the official.

A Seversk resident, Evgeny Kornev, said he witnessed Friday four Chinese planes flying over the city, Russian newspaper Vzglyad reported Sunday, citing Tomsk News Agency TV2.

"First I heard the noise of an airplane flying," said Kornev, "[Then I] logged on to flightradar24.com and saw a Chinese plane flying directly above Seversk, which had never happened before."

Kornev said that the website recorded three other Chinese planes flying over the city in the next 24 hours.

The airline company official said that the 24-hour flight radar website, whose data was quoted by Russian media, is incorrect.

Seversk is an industrial city where Russia's largest nuclear facility is located, and all types of aircraft are forbidden from flying above the city, according to Vzglyad.