A LOT passenger airliner carrying 41 passengers from Warsaw to Kaliningrad that landed at the Chkalovsk Naval Base in Kaliningrad Oblast apparently by mistake on 31 July has been allowed to return to Poland, PAP reported on 1 August.

According to ITAR-TASS, Polish authorities believe that the pilots landed at the base, which is about 20 kilometers away from Kaliningrad's civilian airport, accidentally because they were unfamiliar with the area. A joint team of the Federal Security Service, the Baltic Fleet, the Prosecutor-General's Office, and other agencies was summoned to investigate the incident. Air service between Warsaw and Kaliningrad was inaugurated on 26 July.

(RFE/RL 01.viii.02)