Russian airline Pegas Fly was forced to cancel a flight from Moscow, Russia, to Zhengzhou, China, after COVID-19 tests of almost 200 passengers were found to be identical.

The alarm was raised by the Chinese embassy in Russia. “On November 25, when our embassy checked the results of nucleic acid tests and serological tests for antibodies on passengers on Moscow-Zhengzhou flight EO429, Pegas Fly, it was found that the results of serological tests for antibodies in more than 190 passengers on the flight are completely the same,” the Chinese authorities revealed on WeChat. “There is no way to guarantee the reliability of these tests, and as a result, passengers were not able to get a ‘health code’ to board.” 

Neither the carrier nor the laboratory in charge of the tests was able to explain the identical test results. Pegas Fly was asked by the authorities to run new tests and accommodate the passengers stranded in Moscow in the meantime.

The Chinese Civil Aviation Administration has already suspended flights from Moscow to Zhengzhou operated by Pegas Fly, formerly known as Ikar, due to passengers found with coronavirus. The Chinese embassy also warned that some passengers were able to forge negative coronavirus test results to fly home from Russia, according to the Moscow Times.