A U.S. P-8A Poseidon aircraft flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea was intercepted by a Russian SU-35 on the 15th of April.
The United States say that the interaction was determined to be unsafe due to the SU-35 conducting a high-speed, inverted maneuver, 25 ft directly in front of the mission aircraft, “which put our pilots and crew at risk”.
The Russian jet was essentially flying upside down directly in front of the American Maritime Patrol Aircraft.
The crew of the P-8A reported wake turbulence following the interaction. The duration of the intercept was approximately 42 minutes.
“While the Russian aircraft was operating in international airspace, this interaction was irresponsible. We expect them to behave within international standards set to ensure safety and to prevent incidents, including the 1972 Agreement for the Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas (INCSEA). Unsafe actions increase the risk of miscalculation and potential for midair collisions.”
The U.S. say their aircraft was operating consistent with international law and “did not provoke this Russian activity”.
Mmm where in the Mediterranean would an SU35 be flying from – Syria perhaps ?.
Can’t think where else.
Undoubtedly Syria. This kind of incident is extremely dangerous, professional pilots do not participate in this kind of stunt, the Russians must be desperate for pilots these days if they’re happy to put the village idiot in a cockpit.
pilot probably drunk
That’s a cracking picture, as there is so little news other than Bat Flu here is a video of an ND in CHAD the other day:
https://twitter.com/200_zoka/status/1251600030689001472?s=20
Mate, when you said ND, I thought it would be some muppet not doing the drills to clear their weapon properly! Didn’t think Chad had Su25s as they are mostly supported by France.
Flying inverted? It would seem that with the current standards of the Russians, just flying is a bonus, and being inverted probably happened as he looked at his flying manual on page 2, titled “once flying, how to remain so” !!!!!!!!