Quote:
Originally posted by h.u.r.r.i.c.a.n.e
Apparently the plane was flying over closed airspace. It was closed due to fighting so it was done as a safety precaution. HOWEVER, the plane was flying at 33000 feet and the airspace was closed up to 32000 feet. So it technically wasn't breaking any rules. But I guess those 1k feet didn't make a difference anyway.
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That's a very strange clearance to accept though, rather than to go around the airspace (as you would if it were a weather system), because it doesn't leave very much room for abnormal procedures.
The aircraft was flying eastbound, so it has to stay at odd flight levels. If they encountered something like clear-air turbulence, or had to descend for another reason it would have to go down to 31,000 or below
putting it into the restricted airspace. It more than likely couldn't climb to 35,000 since it may still have been too heavy that early in the flight.
Also, if they had an engine out, or another event such a rapid decompression and they had to descend, it would also have them in breach of the upper limit of the restriction. But we don't have access to the charts, so we don't know how large the restriction was horizontally.