The flight carrying Russian President Vladimir Putin to India transformed into a global spectacle today, becoming the most tracked aircraft worldwide as it headed towards New Delhi. An unprecedented wave of online curiosity followed the presidential jet’s journey, with flight tracking services reporting a significant surge in user engagement. Flight Radar 24 announced on X that the aircraft, bound for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had become their most tracked flight. President Putin was personally received by Prime Minister Modi upon landing in the Indian capital, where they were scheduled for extensive discussions over two days. Their talks were slated to cover crucial bilateral matters, including defense ties, economic trade, and long-term strategic objectives. In the hours before its arrival, flight enthusiasts observed an unusual synchronized maneuver between two Russian government jets. One aircraft would periodically deactivate its transponder, while the other remained active, a pattern that repeated for a period. Transponders are indispensable for transmitting vital flight information to air traffic management systems. This heightened global interest was consistent with President Putin’s established security protocols for international travel. He is known to travel with his heavily fortified Aurus Senat limousine and the presidential aircraft, famously dubbed the ‘Flying Kremlin’. The specific jet, an Ilyushin IL-96-300PU, is a specially outfitted version of the IL-96-300, a long-range airliner conceived by the Ilyushin Design Bureau in the 1980s. First airborne in September 1988, it entered service in the early 1990s, with the state-modified variant becoming a signature element of Russian presidential travel. The extraordinary global tracking phenomenon surrounding this flight once again placed President Putin’s aircraft at the center of worldwide attention, long before its arrival in India.
