U.S. military pilots' unprofessionalism creates danger of collision with KLM, SWISS airliners - Russian Defense Ministry
MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The crew of a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft from the Kadena Air Base (Japan), which was on a reconnaissance mission over the Sea of Japan near the Russian border on May 22, created the danger of a collision with civilian airliners, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
"The U.S. military aircraft crew's unprofessional actions created the danger of its collision with civilian aircraft belonging to the Dutch airline KLM and Switzerland's SWISS," Konashenkov told journalists on Wednesday.
"The Russian Defense Ministry called for taking measures to rule out the replay of such situations during U.S. reconnaissance aircraft's flights near Russian borders," he said.
"Flights of U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, particularly the turbojet RC-125 aircraft, near Russia's eastern borders are not something unusual and are flown nearly on a daily basis. However, this time around, maneuvering along the international air route, the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft created a real threat of a collision with passenger airliners, which could have led to disastrous consequences," Konashenkov said.
"The flight was passing at an altitude of about 10,000 meters, with the transponder switched off," he said.
While approaching the Russian border, the RC-135 started crossing the international air route, which was used at the time by a KLM aircraft en route from Tokyo to Amsterdam and a SWISS aircraft en route from Tokyo to Zurich. "The SWISS crew reported to the Russian air traffic controllers from the Vladivostok regional air traffic control center that they visually observed a four-engine jet of unidentified affiliation approaching head-on," Konashenkov said.
"Having assessed the situation, the Russian air traffic controllers ordered them to descend to prevent a near miss with the reconnaissance aircraft at 5:41 a.m.," he said.
It was reported earlier that the U.S. defense attache to Russia had been summoned to the Russian Defense Ministry, to be told that Russian air defense systems had detected a U.S. Air Force RC-135 plane on an air reconnaissance mission near Russia's border over the Sea of Japan on May 22, 2016.
It was said that the U.S. aircraft's crew had not notified the region's air traffic control services of its route, and the aircraft was using flight levels allotted for civilian aircraft performing regular flights.
It was reported on Wednesday that a U.S. RC-135S reconnaissance aircraft approached the coastline in the Murmansk region, on Wednesday. Western news portals monitoring the movements of military aircraft reported that the plane, with the tail number 61-2663 and call-sign LIVID05, had taken off from the Mildenhall airbase in the United Kingdom, and was on a mission over the Barents Sea.