‘Loneliest flight in sky’: Ethiopian flight in Pakistan airspace amid Operation Sindoor? Viral Flightradar24 route map

A flight tracking website has claimed that during Operation Sindoor, while most airlines avoided Pakistani airspace, a lone Ethiopian flight was spotted traversing the country’s near-empty skies. As per Flightradar24, Ethiopian Airlines flight ETH672, going from Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa to South Korea’s Seoul, was spotted crossing Pakistan during the strike.

Flightradar24 shared the route map of an Ethiopian flight that was spotted in Pakistan airspace amid Operation Sindoor (representative image). (Unsplash/@iso_100)

“Our most tracked flight right now: the lone flight traversing Pakistan. Based on NOTAMs, Pakistan has not closed its airspace, but there continue to be multiple airways unavailable to traffic,” the site wrote on their official X profile, while sharing a map. It shows flights in the airspace surrounding Pakistan, with only ETH672 entering the country’s airspace and eventually crossing it.

Not just Flightradar24, several X users also shared similar photos, commenting on the Ethiopian Airlines flight. “Get the hell out of dodge, Ethiopian Airlines 672,” an X user wrote and shared a screenshot similar to Flightradar24.

Flightradar24 X post. (X/@flightradar24) Flightradar24 route map. (X/@flightradar24)

According to the site’s data, commercial jets have cleared out of Pakistani airspace, leaving it virtually empty. However, in a separate post, an X user claimed another Ethiopian Airlines flight entered Pakistani airspace.

Another Ethiopian flight in Pakistan airspace. (X/@tanvi_madan) Ethiopian flight crossing Pakistan.

About Operation Sindoor:

In the early hours of Wednesday, the Indian army launched the operation, striking nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. In a statement, the government said that “terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed” from these sites.

The statement added, “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”

The operation was launched in the wake of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, which claimed the lives of 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen. “We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable,” the government said in the statement.

Following the strike, several airports in India have been shut down. Several airports and major airlines have posted about this development on social media. The airports temporarily shut down in India include Jammu, Srinagar, Leh, Dharamshala, Bikaner, Hindon, and Amritsar.