On Friday, a Russian Su-35 fighter jet dangerously intercepted a Let L410 (reg. SN-61YG) aircraft to the Polish Border Guard Service, which was conducting a scheduled patrol mission under the auspices of Frontex over the Black Sea in international airspace in cooperation with Romanian services.
The incident occurred at around 13:20, 60 km to the east from Romanian airspace. The Ministry of National Defence of Romania reported that the Russian fighter jet’s aggressive and dangerous manoeuvres caused high turbulence and difficulties in controlling the Polish aircraft.
Two Romanian Air Force fighter jets and two Spanish Air Force fighter jets, operating as part of the Air Police Combat Service, were alerted by NATO’s Joint Air Operations Center in Torrejón, Spain, and were ready to intervene if necessary, but it was not required.
The Polish crew managed to regain control of the aircraft after an initial loss of altitude caused by the Su-35’s maneuvers and landed safely at Mihail Kogălniceanu International Airport in Romania around 1:50 p.m. None of the Polish crew members were injured.
The Romanian authorities are in contact with Frontex and the Polish authorities to find out all the circumstances of the incident. The Ministry of Defence of Romania states that the Russian Federation’s aggressive behaviour towards an unarmed aircraft carrying out the Frontex mission of monitoring migration risks in the Black Sea basin is unacceptable. The incident is further evidence of the provocative behaviour of the Russian Federation in the Black Sea.
The Polish L410 UVP-E20 aircraft is in Romania from 19 April to 17 May 2023 as part of the Western Black Sea 2023 multipurpose maritime operation coordinated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. The operation, led by Romania and coordinated by Frontex, aims to prevent illegal migration, illegal fishing, sea pollution, and other types of cross-border crime in the Black Sea region. It involves Poland, Spain, and Sweden, along with two European Union agencies, and is planned to continue until mid-December this year.
Stupid Russian Bullies
This map should be included with other articles on this topic. Had to browse for a while to find it. Now, based on the flight path, I consider the actions of Russians as unjustified. The plane was patroling Romanian (EU) border. Unlike the incident with the Reaper drone – which could be justified by the means of distance from US/NATO border and a fact that the surveilance would be used to kill Russian soldiers. In this case neither the place, nor the reason (I highly doubt the plane would be able to gather any usefull information on the conflict from such a distance) would justify any action from the Russian side. Also, if you search Images on Google regarding this topic, there is a misleading graphics from “The U.S. Sun” showing a random spot in the Black Sea – far from the Romanian border and close to Crimea. This graphic of the intercept area should therefore be shared.
Russian pilots are provoking other nations and NATO. If NATO send fighter jets to the region, Russia will take as act of war. And they claim to be the victim of NATO aggression. But what Russia doesn’t see is that is they are causing other nations to join the war. Russia pilots don’t have any rights to intercept or in other words play chicken with other nations. Maybe next time this happens, this patrols other nations should send fighter jets should be present in numbers to show them not to act stupid or provoke war.