SFor more than a year, a giant white-and-blue plane has been parked at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, drawing photographers’ lenses toward it. The four-engine AN-124 Antonov freighter belongs to the Russian cargo airline Volga-Dnepr and has been on the chain since the beginning of the Ukraine war. Now he should soon be able to take off again – but in the direction of Ukraine.
The Antonov with flight number VI5854 landed in Canada on February 27, 2022, coming from China with a large number of Covid 19 tests in its stomach. When the machine tried to take off again after unloading, the authorities refused permission to take off because the Canadian government, like other western countries, had imposed sanctions and blocked their airspace for Russian-owned aircraft.