A heavy military transport aircraft An-124 "Ruslan" with tail number RA-82040 made an unusual flight from Vnukovo Airport to Damascus on the evening of September 7. Information about the flight was recorded by the Flightradar tracking system.

What exactly the "Ruslan" brought to Syria is unknown, but the An-124's payload capacity allows it to deliver up to 150 tons of cargo over a distance of up to 12 thousand km.

The distance between Vnukovo (VKO) and Damascus in a straight line is approximately 2465–2470 kilometers. A direct flight takes from 4.4 to 5.5 hours.

A few days ago, the same "Ruslan" unexpectedly appeared in Kaliningrad, where it arrived from St. Petersburg. By the way, aircraft RA-82040 is the first in the Russian Aerospace Forces to undergo a deep overhaul of its onboard electronics. But the D-18T engines remained the same.

Earlier it became known why it is impossible to resume production of "Ruslans" in Russia. The necessary production base has been destroyed, and almost no competencies remain.