A Polish plane patrolling the Black Sea off Romania as part of a mission from the European agency Frontex narrowly avoided a collision with a Russian fighter jet on Friday, Romania and Poland said.
The Russian SU-35 fighter jet carried out “aggressive and dangerous maneuvers” while approaching the Polish aircraft without maintaining a safe distance, which led to turbulence, loss of altitude and temporary loss control of the plane by the Polish crew, Anna, spokeswoman for the Polish border guard, said Sunday on Twitter Michalska.
“The Russian plane flew right in front of the nose of the Polish plane, crossing its path at a dangerous distance, which the crew estimated at about five meters,” Michalska explained.
After three approaches, the Russian plane took off, she added.
The incident occurred in international airspace.
The Romanian Ministry of Defense noted in a press release that the actions of the Russian pilot were completely unacceptable.
“This incident is further proof of the Russian Federation’s provocative methods in the Black Sea,” the ministry said.
Two Romanian Air Force combat planes and two Spanish Air Force planes, intended for air policing tasks, were alerted by the NATO Joint Air Operations Center in Torrejón, Spain. Although four planes are ready to intervene at any time, their intervention proved useless, explained the Romanian Ministry of Defense.
“It looks like a planned provocation by Russia, the crew acted responsibly and luckily nothing happened. We see that Russia is trying to get the attention of the international community with such provocations,” Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said in an interview with Polsat News TV on Sunday.
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