Pentagon protests Russian interception of US spy plane

Boeing RC-135 (Photo from RT)

Washington (IINA) – A Russian jet has intercepted a US reconnaissance plane in the Baltic Sea, the Pentagon has said only a few days after it decried Moscow for its military aircraft buzzing a US destroyer in the same area, Russia Today (RT) reported.
The alleged “interception” occurred on Thursday, Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for European Command, told CNN. He said the Russian Su-27 "performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers," only 50 feet (15 meters) away from the US aircraft.
The US Boeing RC-135 aircraft was "intercepted by a Russian SU-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner," Hernandez said, stressing that the US jet never entered Russian airspace.
"The unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalated tensions between countries," he said. The Pentagon later confirmed the complaints to Russian News Agency TASS. “We are protesting the incident with the Russian government,” a Pentagon official told the agency.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied the accusations, saying the Pentagon’s assessment was inaccurate. A similar incident involving a US RC-135 spy plane and a Russian interceptor was reported in January over the Black Sea. At that time the Pentagon also complained that the Russian jet acted in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner.”
AB/IINA

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