Russia announced this Sunday that it was “averted” when a commercial airliner was forced to change trajectory to evade a NATO spy installation over the Black Sea.
“Disaster averted (…), but that does not mean that the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) can continue to risk their lives with impunity,” the spokesman said in a statement. diplomacy, Maria Zakharova.
According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the incident took place on Friday morning, when the reconnaissance plane “quickly descended”, crossed the air route that was included in the Airbus flight plan of the Russian company Aeroflot. communication between Tel Aviv and Moscow with 142 people on board.
“The direction and altitude of the civilian aircraft were immediately changed,” the Federal Air Transport Agency explained in a statement quoted by AFP, according to which the crew of the reconnaissance aircraft did not respond to air traffic controllers’ messages.
According to the Russian agency Interfax, the Russian plane dived 500 meters to get away from a reconnaissance device that the pilots could see from the “cockpit”.
Another smaller aircraft, the CL-650, which flew between the Russian seaside resort of Sochi and Skopje, also changed its trajectory due to the reconnaissance aircraft, the Federal Air Transport Agency reported.
“The increased activity of NATO aircraft across Russian borders (…) poses a risk of dangerous incidents involving civilian aircraft,” the Russian civil aviation agency said, adding that it would “protest” through diplomatic channels.
The Federal Air Transport Agency did not specify the nationality of the spy apparatus, but in her statement, Zakharova accused the US Air Force of “posing a threat to civil aviation.”
Russian media reported that Russian fighters were sent to the Black Sea on Friday to escort two US reconnaissance aircraft.
Neither the Atlantic Alliance nor the United States has yet reacted to these accusations.
The incident comes amid growing tensions between Russia and Western countries, which accuse Moscow of stationing troops on the border with Ukraine to invade.
Russia denies these accusations and accuses NATO countries of repeated “provocations”, namely the recent military exercises near its borders in the Black Sea.
