Presidential plane turned back to Warsaw; defence ministry denies landing refusal

Plane turned back mid-flight

Karol Nawrocki was flying to Senegal on Friday, 30 October, with his delegation when the government aircraft turned around and headed back to Warsaw. The trip had been planned to include talks with the Senegalese president and representatives of the African Union. The president cited events at the Constitutional Tribunal (Trybunał Konstytucyjny), where a dispute over the institution's leadership began shortly after his departure from Poland. About 18 journalists travelling with him were told they were returning home, and the president announced the change on social media. Shortly after landing, he went to the Tribunal building.

“At such a moment the President must be in Poland. I am interrupting the flight to Senegal. I am returning.”

Reports of a refused landing

After the plane was back in Poland, reports spread on social media that the government had tried to stop the aircraft from landing in Warsaw. According to these claims, permission to land at the military part of Okęcie airport was to be refused, forcing a diversion to another city so the president could not reach the Tribunal in time. The reports said the military had refused to carry out that order, and the aircraft landed in Warsaw as planned. Some media later reported that the president had difficulty obtaining landing permission at the military section of the airport. Both the ministry and the chancellery rejected these accounts, and the reports were not confirmed by any official source cited in the articles.

Official denials

The Ministry of National Defence (MON) published a communiqué on X on Monday, 2 November, stating that it firmly rejected the false information about a refused landing. The ministry said its military pilots began the task without obstacles as soon as they learned the flight had been interrupted and the aircraft had to return to Warsaw. The statement added that any reports of problems with the military aircraft's return to Poland were untrue. The ministry warned that this kind of disinformation could be used by Russian and Belarusian propaganda.

“Military pilots, after receiving information about the interruption of the flight and the need to return to Warsaw, immediately and without any obstacles began carrying out the task.”

Chancellery's account of the route change

Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Chancellery of the President, told Kanał Zero on Monday that the claims were not true.

“That is not true.”

He said the aircraft's route had changed at one point, possibly over France, because of weather conditions, especially strong wind. Once conditions allowed, the flight continued directly to Warsaw, the home airport of the presidential aircraft. Bogucki suggested that this course change may have been what fuelled the rumours.

Which unit handles these flights

Flights for the country's most senior officials are handled by the military 1st Air Transport Base at Okęcie in Warsaw. The unit operates government Boeing 737 and Gulfstream G550 aircraft, which also use the runways of the civilian airport. The base's role is the basis for the ministry's point that the return was carried out by its own crews. The sources do not say whether any further review of the flight is planned.