Last flight I was on did a big ass loop. Kinda wanted to ask the pilot why he did that, but it was a longer than expected flight and I just wanted to go home. The weather was shit, so I’m guessing the airport was temporarily closed because of that. Probably the pilot knew the weather situation and took on extra fuel so he could just fly around for a while if the airport was temporarily closed.

So yeah, there’s a lot of little details that would make sense if you’re on the plane, but looks really weird if the only thing you’re looking at is a flight path.

Not sure if flying over Afghanistan is a better option than Iran tho. Betting on the Taliban (or the various groups they’re fighting against) don’t have the capability to shoot down airplanes I guess.

That route just looks like a minefield considering the geopoltics along most of that path.

CYA and possibly liability reasons. “I didn’t make the bad decision, I was following the advice of the consultants.”

But also there are times you actually do need advice from experts. Not all consultants are bad. But yeah, a lot of it is just CYA stuff.