Belarusians Described How They Survived The "Hellish Chaos" At A Russian Airport

24.10.2026, 9:50

A young couple from Minsk found themselves at Vnukovo Airport just as a large-scale flight suspension took effect.

In recent years, Russia has regularly experienced (due to massive UAV attacks) large-scale aviation disruptions. The most recent incident was the complete closure of Moscow’s airspace on October 23. Another large-scale airspace closure, which affected four Moscow airports (Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky), took place from October 16 to 18. Myfin.by a young couple from Minsk.

Large-scale airspace closure

The scale of flight cancellations and delays at that time was enormous, numbering in the hundreds per day. According to Rosaviatsiya, by midday on October 17, more than 350 flights in Moscow had been delayed or canceled simultaneously.

The situation was worst at Sheremetyevo, where the number of canceled or delayed flights exceeded one hundred. But at Vnukovo as well, the disruption affected dozens of flights, forcing thousands of people to spend dozens of hours on the floors of terminals and waiting areas, sleeping on their suitcases.

Russians were the ones most affected by the chaos, but it also impacted Belarusians, including a young couple from Minsk who had decided to travel to Turkey via Vnukovo.

Daniil and Elizaveta decided not to use travel agencies (since visas aren’t required for flights to Turkey) and organized their vacation on their own.

Turkish “wild ones” and chaos at Vnukovo

– We decided not to book a package tour, to save money and spend the difference once we got there—on excursions and other activities. We planned everything ourselves—booked the hotel, bus and plane tickets, and so on. We traveled to Moscow by bus to the “Salaryevo” bus station, and from there took public transportation to Vnukovo Airport. Our original departure date and time were October 16 at 1:10 p.m.,” said Elizaveta.

According to Daniil, when the Belarusians arrived at Vnukovo on Friday morning, the airport was in chaos.

“There were huge crowds, a lot of noise and commotion, and the online departure board didn’t match the physical one at the airport—nothing made sense. What’s going on with our flight?” On top of that, there were police with dogs on every corner, which only added to the anxiety but didn’t help: people were running around, confused, fussing, and arguing, but there was no information... We were discouraged: our first vacation together—and such a nightmare,” Daniil shared his first impressions of Vnukovo.

The Turkish Airlines flight on which the Minsk residents were supposed to fly to Antalya was initially delayed, then canceled and rescheduled for later the next day, so they had to stay at the airport until evening. According to Daniil, the situation at Vnukovo was striking.

“People were behaving exactly as you’d expect in a crowded place: it was noisy, and some people were lying on the floor and leaving trash around.” What was striking, however, was that the thousands of people stranded at Vnukovo had nowhere to sit: the spaces were huge but empty—no benches, no chairs, nothing. As a result, a huge number of people were forced to spend many hours on their feet,” Daniil said, describing the situation on October 16.

Turkish Airlines’ Strange Behavior

As Elizaveta explained, almost all the passengers on their flight were Russian; there were only a few Belarusians. They met—at least in passing—at the airline’s counter and its office, where the couple went later to seek information, since it wasn’t clear what was happening with their flight.

“After discovering on the airport’s website that our flight had been canceled entirely—and not rescheduled like the others—we started looking for a Turkish Airlines representative. There’s an airline office on the second or third floor of Vnukovo, but its representative was shocking—he didn’t help passengers on canceled Turkish Airlines flights, didn’t show them any care or attention, and was very reluctant to engage with us. Eventually, Daniil managed to get an answer: they said our new flight would be at 2:00 p.m. the next day. And they sent us to counter No. 217 to sort everything out,” Elizaveta said.

“There was a rude representative sitting at the Turkish Airlines office who answered every question with one-word replies. Seriously—just one word!” And he couldn’t care less about how we were going to get by and solve our problems,” recalls Daniil.

When the Belarusians returned to the first floor, information about the flights appeared on slips of paper attached to the office windows. Specifically, it stated that their Flight No. 3071 had been canceled, re-scheduled, and that the new flight would depart the following day. In addition, one of the notes stated that after 2:00 p.m., passengers could go to ticket counter 217 to receive vouchers for a hotel and meals.

– When 2:00 p.m. rolled around, we went to the counter, and they registered us as needing a hotel. After waiting another hour and a half while airport representatives gathered a group from the two canceled Turkish Airlines flights, we headed to the hotel. Although the hotel was free and had a decent room and food, its location was dreadful: it was surrounded by some huge warehouses, and a horrible stench wafted in from the street. “But we were very tired and fell asleep despite everything,” said Elizaveta.

Since the bus didn’t take the Turkish Airlines passengers to the hotel until 5:00 p.m., the Belarusians were left without lunch. They managed to have dinner, then breakfast, and (surprisingly) the entire group from the canceled flight was taken back to Vnukovo.

– Even though the online flight status board on the airport’s website showed that the new flight had been canceled again. It’s unclear why we went back to the airport if we could have extended our stay at the hotel. But it turned out to be a good decision in the end, since the other hotel where we spent our second night was a bit better: though very small, it was surrounded by parks. So we went for a walk before bed,” said Daniil.

But there was one thing the two hotels where the Belarusians stayed had in common.

“Breakfast and dinner were fine; the only problem was that the water was disgusting! That was true at both hotels. It’s so heavily chlorinated that it’s impossible to drink that stuff. Not only that—for breakfast, they poured that same tap water into pitchers; it tasted really awful,” Elizaveta shared.

A Mysterious Voucher and Friendship Among Nations

In addition to accommodation vouchers, on the second day, 217 Belarusians were given Turkish Airlines notices at the front desk stating that their flights had been canceled.

“It’s just a blank form where you fill in your last name and flight numbers, and this piece of paper has a stamp stating that Turkish Airlines canceled the flights and that our vacation was ruined through no fault of our own.” We were told that we could submit these certificates to the hotel so it would refund us for the lost vacation days.

But we booked the hotel on booking.com, and their customer support replied that they wouldn’t refund us for the two missed days—saying that we paid for the service, the hotel provided it, and the fact that we didn’t show up is our problem. But there’s still a chance we might get compensation—a Turkish Airlines representative said we could submit these documents to the airline’s customer support, and we’d get reimbursed for the missed vacation days,” said Daniil.

On their second day at the airport, the Minsk residents met Kefas, a Nigerian who didn’t speak Russian, and because the vast majority of Russians don’t speak English, he was facing a host of problems amid the chaos at Vnukovo.

“The poor guy didn’t know where to go or what to do—we had to rescue him. It turned out that he, too, was stranded on his way to Istanbul, Turkey. Although he’s from Nigeria himself and had flown to Moscow for some kind of business conference. We helped him with translation, and in the end, he also flew out the next day at about the same time as we did,” Daniil shared.

According to the Minsk resident, throughout those three days at the airport, they were greatly annoyed by people who lacked proper manners and communication skills.

Two hours at the boarding ramp without water

He also said that there weren’t many flight cancellations—most were rescheduled—but Turkish Airlines played it safe and canceled its own flights. As a result, on the second day, the airport’s online departure board listed eight of the airline’s flights to Antalya within a single hour during the day.

“We’re very unhappy with how Turkish Airlines played it safe, even though many flights from other airlines had already departed on the 17th.” In addition, the departure itself—on the evening of the third day of our stay at Vnukovo—left a very unpleasant aftertaste: not only was it rescheduled several times, starting at 2:30 p.m., but they also kept us waiting at the gate for two hours. Why not just put us on the plane that took off around 6:00 p.m.? It’s unclear,” Daniil said.

Elizaveta was also upset and spoke negatively about the airline.

“After going through all the immigration checks, baggage screening, and so on, we had to wait another two hours to board the plane. There was nowhere to sit, and no water—they took it away, as they always do. But even though we waited more than two hours, we weren’t given any water or sandwiches, as they’re required to do according to regulations if a flight is delayed by more than two hours.

And the way the immigration check was organized was an unpleasant surprise: Russians were crowding together and cutting in line—apparently in a great hurry to get to the duty-free shop—and I even had to get into an argument with one rude woman. Water bottles and trash were literally scattered all over the floor. In addition, the screening of carry-on luggage and the passengers themselves looked very strange: while bags were run through a metal detector, no one checked the passengers—the whole process took literally just a couple of seconds. It seemed like you could board the plane carrying anything you wanted,” said Elizaveta.

Uncertain Prospects

On the third day of their stay at Vnukovo, the Belarusians decided that if they couldn’t fly to Antalya, they would return to Minsk—after all, they had originally planned to stay by the sea for only 7 days. In the end, they did manage to board the plane.

The flight itself went smoothly: the Minsk residents were satisfied with the in-flight service—they were served a delicious meal and even given a glass of wine.

“We took off smoothly, landed smoothly, and the flight itself went well. Upon arrival, there wasn’t anything particularly interesting: we picked up our luggage, hopped in a taxi, and arrived at our destination.”

– We took off without a hitch, landed without a hitch, and the flight itself went well. Upon arrival, nothing particularly interesting happened: we picked up our luggage, hopped in a taxi, arrived at the hotel, and fell asleep right away.

We lost more than two days of our vacation, which the hotel refused to compensate us for. The only option is to contact the airline, because it’s obligated to compensate us for those two missed days of vacation.

But it’s still unclear how this will all turn out—customer support said they don’t accept any documents or claims online, only at the airport. “I hope our first impressions of Turkish Airlines were just a coincidence,” Daniil concluded.

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Belarusians Described How They Survived The "Hellish Chaos" At A Russian Airport

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