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US military blames ‘reckless’ Russian aircraft for causing US drone crash over Black Sea
‘Reckless’: US says Russian warplane caused drone crash over Black Sea
- US says MQ-9 spy drone was operating in international airspace when it was ‘intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft’, resulting in crash of drone
- Russia’s ambassador to Washington said the incident was a provocation, but that Moscow did not want confrontation with the US
The US military’s European Command reported that a Russian Su-27 fighter aircraft collided with an American MQ-9 drone and made it crash into the Black Sea, a “reckless” move that prompted the State Department to summon the Kremlin’s ambassador.
Two Su-27s intercepted the American spy drone and one of them struck the drone’s propeller, according to the announcement on Tuesday. The Russian planes dumped fuel on the MQ-9 repeatedly, possibly trying to disable it, and flew in front of it just before the collision at 7.03am, it added.
“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” US Air Force General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, announced.
“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”
Russia’s defence ministry rejected the US military’s version of events, denying it caused the drone to crash.
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“What we saw … were fighter aircraft dumping fuel in front of this UAV and then getting so close to the aircraft that [one of them] had actually damaged the propeller on the MQ-9,” Ryder said. “We assess that it likely caused some damage to the Russian aircraft as well.
“To our knowledge we know that … the Russian aircraft did land,” he added. “I’m not going to go into where they landed.”
Ryder also said the Russians had not recovered the downed drone and declined to give any further details about efforts by the US military to recover it.
“We are engaging directly with the Russians at senior levels to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the downing of the unmanned US aircraft,” Price said. “We are summoning the Russian ambassador to the department where we will convey this message in Moscow.”
According to Russia’s RIA state news agency, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov said: “We view this incident as a provocation”.
However he added: “We don’t want any confrontation between the US and Russia”.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed that the US drone was flying with its transponders off, “violating the boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation”, causing the military to scramble fighters to intercept it.
“As a result of sharp manoeuvring, the US drone went into uncontrollable flight with a loss of altitude” and crashed into the water, the Russian defence ministry said.
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“The Russian fighters did not use their onboard weapons, did not come into contact with the UAV and returned safely to their home airfield,” it added.
“It is not uncommon … for there to be intercepts by Russian aircraft of US aircraft over the Black Sea,” Kirby told journalists, referring to one plane making visual or electronic contact with another.
But this case “is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was, indeed reckless that it was”, he said.
Nato diplomats in Brussels confirmed the incident, but said they did not expect it to immediately escalate into a further confrontation.
The US military said the incident followed a pattern of dangerous behaviour by Russian pilots operating near aircraft flown by the US and its allies, including over the Black Sea.
Bordered by Russia, Ukraine and other countries, the Black Sea lies between Europe and Asia.
The drone incident “follows a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with US and allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea”, the US European Command said.
“US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa routinely fly aircraft throughout Europe over sovereign territory and throughout international airspace in coordination with applicable host nation and international laws,” it added.
Additional reporting by Orange Wang in Washington
