Geneva airline fined for Russians on board
Sanctions almost ruined an international round-the-world expedition.
On February 27, 2022, Canada closed its airspace to aircraft owned or operated by Russia because of Russia's attack on Ukraine. The Department of Transportation deemed a plane that landed in Yellowknife on March 1 violated the ban, although it did not belong to Russia.
The two Russian citizens aboard, dollar billionaire Vasily Shakhnovsky and mountaineer Vasily Yelagin, were planning a land expedition across Nunavut on a specially-designed all-terrain amphibious vehicle, the Emelya, as part of the TransGlobal Car Expedition. This is an international project, the goal of which is to make a round-the-world trip across all continents, passing through both poles.
The North Pole does not belong to any country, but the nearest settlement to it is in Nunavut. It is Alert, the northernmost settlement in the world. On this basis, Canadians believe that Santa Claus resides in their country.
Transport Canada fined two pilots and the Russian who chartered the plane $3,000 CAD each. Dunard Engineering Ltd, a Geneva-based airline, was fined $15,000 CAD.
Despite this overlap, the Russians left via Nunavut before the Canadian government decided what to do with them. The plane, after several days of investigation, was cleared to leave Yellowknife, but without passengers.
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