Bajatovic revealed whole truth about mysterious flight to Moscow

"Vulin, Popovic and I were on the plane, alive and well and we landed twice," Dusan Bajatovic, director of Srbijagas public state enterprise and honorary consul of Russia in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, told Blic today. Bajatovic commented on the fact that he departed for Moscow yesterday afternoon, but landed at his destination seven hours late.

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Aleksandar Vulin, president of the Supervisory Board of Srbijagas, and Nenad Popovic, former minister without portfolio, were on the same plane.

But the Air Serbia flight JU 134 that this trio was on took an unusual path; the plane took off, and after several hours returned to Belgrade, then left for Moscow again and early this morning finally arrived in the capital of Russia.

This is why Bajatovic was traveling to Moscow

The return of the flight was confirmed by Air Serbia in a statement saying that the plane that was on the regular flight JU134 on the Belgrade-Moscow route returned to Belgrade after that company received information from the competent airport services that required the implementation of additional security checks concerning one passenger.

Although Aleksandar Vulin and Nenad Popovic were also on the plane, Bajatovic tells Blic that they did not travel for the same reason and that his trip to Russia is related to problems in gas supply and payment transactions concerning the Alta Banka case.

Previously, he told the media last night that they were officially informed that the plane returned to Belgrade because of security procedures and added that Aleksandar Vulin and Nenad Popovic were on the flight, along with about 150 passengers, mostly Russian citizens.

"Only when we landed in Belgrade, we were informed that we had to go through a completely new procedure, all the luggage was checked in detail without giving any particular reasons why it was done, except that it was according to the procedure. Therefore, the delay was a little longer," Bajatovic told N1.

After landing in Belgrade, he says, they were taken over by the police.

"We went to a completely separate checkpoint and a detailed inspection of all the passengers on the plane and their luggage was carried out. And now we are waiting for the third bus to arrive, and this flight to Moscow will continue," he said while the situation was developing last night.

He could not confirm allegations that Vulin failed security checks, that is, that his luggage was not checked before take-off.

"I expect to see him on the plane," Bajatovic said.

He added that he was not seeing anything "bad or suspicious" happening at the airport.

When asked if he communicated with Vulin and Popovic during the initial flight, he stated:

"To be honest with you, we said hello, but I was sleeping the whole time. Only when we landed in Belgrade, and when the captain said that we landed in Belgrade, I then became aware of what was happening," Bajatovic stated.

(Telegraf.rs/Blic)