Russian Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova comments on air traffic control dangers due to US reconnaissance flights ingoring traffic safety procedures

Originally published by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
via South Front

[ Editor’s Note: I have not fully researched all of these civilian air traffic control incidents by US surveillance aircraft, but I have never heard of them endangering non-Russian flights.

I don’t think they have involved any NATO country air craft. Imagine that. US media seems to consider this conduct uneventful, or it has been told to stay out of it.



Black Sea air and sea traffic could be monitored from satellites that would not endanger civilian air craft. US flights, and especially military ones would be aware of all of this traffic. During the Cold War, adversary air space used to be violated on a regular basis to test the current response times to gather data to prepare tactical scenarios for a shooting war.

The USS Pueblo was collecting North Korean radio traffic with no protective escort when the NKs decided they would up the game by grabbing the undefended ship and get all of its equipment.

Staying just outside North Korean waters that included island boundaries was tricky under normal circumstances, but Captain Bucher had crew talent issues in the department. “I did not have a highly professional group of seamen to do my navigational chores for me.”[9]

Bucher was a long time supporter of the USS Liberty crew, and via them I was able to do a phone interview with Bucher, and it is a pity that I was not recording it at the time.

I share that story because back then the Naval command would not have been interested in hearing from the captain of the Pueblo about how exposed it was for being grabbed, and having no Navy combat forces anywhere near them to intercede.

We have already had one civilian airliner shot down over Ukraine during tense East-West conditions, and Iran shot down one of its own planes due to a jittery air defense crew after the General Soleimani assassination.

These incidents show how a country can sleep walk into a war. Trump certainly has quite a memory of his all nighter when Iran retaliated for Soleimani’s killing, with his entire staff with him, something air brushed out of the history… Jim W. Dean ]

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First published December 9, 2021

The military activity of the United States and NATO member states along the perimeter of Russia’s borders, including military flights and dangerous manoeuvres by naval ships, continues to mount.

The US military and its NATO allies have gone from attempts to test the strength of our border protection system to provocations against civilian aircraft, which jeopardises the safety of the airspace and puts human lives in danger.

In connection with these provocative actions, on December 8, the US Embassy in Moscow received a note of protest warning about the dangerous consequences of this reckless behaviour.

The note enumerates recent incidents which did not end in tragedy only due to sheer luck and the quick thinking of Russian pilots and air traffic controllers.

Thus, on the morning of December 3, the US Air Force CL-600 reconnaissance aircraft performed a flight over the open waters of the Black Sea near the area of responsibility of the Russian air traffic services and made a steep descent from an altitude of 11,000 m to an altitude of 9,200 m, having thus crossed the route reserved for civil aircraft. The crew failed to answer the airtraffic dispatchers’ repeated calls.

Thanks exclusively to the professionalism and discipline of our aviation services, which promptly gave a command to the pilots of an Aeroflot flight, whose route was crossed by the reconnaissance aircraft, a collision was prevented.

In the same hours and for the same reasons, a Maltese airliner flying from Sochi to Skopje narrowly escaped a collision. Later that day, December 3, Russian military aircraft scrambled to escort the US Air Force RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea.

We observe these dangerous situations on a regular basis.

Earlier, on October 6, as the note presented to the US Embassy says, ​​flight PSD093 performed by the Special Flight Detachment Rossiya en route from Anapa to Moscow, at 3:50 pm (Moscow time), when it was above the Black Sea coast between Anapa and Novorossiysk, detected an unidentified flying object that was flying straight ahead of it and failed to establish communication.

It was identified as the UAV Reaper (MQ9AReaper) which is used by NATO for reconnaissance missions. To avoid a collision, the air controllers from the Rostov Regional Air Traffic Management Centre swiftly changed the Russian air carrier’s route.

On October 13 at 9:58 am (Moscow time), a US Air Force Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft got dangerously close to a Boeing 767-300 ER passenger aircraft operated by Azur Air airline which was flying from Ramenskoye Airport to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

The incident took place in the area of responsibility of the aforementioned Rostov Centre. Given the circumstances, the air controllers instructed the pilots to make a steep descent in order to avoid a collision.

To reiterate, the unacceptable and dangerous activities of the aircraft operated by NATO member countries, with US and NATO military aircraft flying without radio communication or flight plans and failing to obtain air traffic control clearances, dangerous activities of the aircraft operated by NATO member countries, with US and NATO military aircraft flying without radio communication or flight plans and failing to obtain air traffic control clearances, are fraught with serious risks to the safety of civil aircraft and other international laws.

Reserving the right to respond to the corresponding challenges posed by the United States and NATO members, we call for a substantive dialogue on security guarantees and a discussion of pathways to reduce military and political tensions and to prevent dangerous incidents in the air and at sea. Otherwise, all the means at our disposal will be used to prevent and neutralise emerging threats.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Crates.. from a british film clip of Vlad Moving in Heavy Military Gear on rail flatbeds… off in the distance there was a derrik crane crushing and staking the empty military crates…

    during desert storm the depo @ York Pa used derrik cranes to stak the empty mill crates after they were unpacked.. that pile of crates was ten stories high and covered a foot ballfield..

    the british clip was from a transloading lair somewhere in russia…

    biden is a lost cause and too weak… Vlad or the Duma is going to attack

  2. Meanwhile, back on the planet Earth, Russia will not invade Ukraine, period. Why would they? Ukraine is a basket case. It’s able-bodied population has mostly left the country to find work… anywhere, including Russia. Its infrastructure has been dismantled and sold for scrap. 15 Soviet-era nuclear reactors which are being run flat out but there are rolling blackouts anyway, and which are due to be shut down for good, with no funds available to refurbish them. I could go on and on.

    But, that doesn’t mean the the USA won’t soon be nuking the Ruskies. A redo of 9/11, coming right up, folks. It will be blamed on Russia, Iran, Syria… who cares? 50 million US Christian Zionists will be all for it!

    • Again, Putin will not invade Ukraine. I’m sure he told Biden that in the latest exchange. Biden can only respond with more threats of sanctions, which as you know, Putin will just smile and shake his head at. Russia has joined with China and Iran in the new Belt and Road Initiative which makes US sanctions obsolete.

    • The fascist Ukrainians have already looted their part of the country, picking it dry. They want DonBass, which is why the Russians have been on the border and will remain there. They have been constantly shelling the Donbass perimeter with nary a word of respite from the EU, NATO, or the US. Kiev does not want to make a disastrous move on Donbass without a US troop and armed forces already there, so US air power, naval, etc, will be their muscle to hold the Russians off. Kiev wants to become the New Germany with large US forces permanently based there, another wonderful source of cash flow for those who know how to get their hands on it.

  3. rail footage – has a derrik crane staking the wood shipping crates in a neat pile / off 2 side..

    looks like the reds plan to occupy.. thats D-Day scale..

    the depo @ york PA had a crate stak 10 stories and over a football field / desert storm; they used a derrik crane to keep up !

    • uh.. I’m confused. I guess I need some context. Not sure what you mean by anything .. york? Like in the UK? Reds, as in China and Russia? 10 stories,.. like a skyscraper tall, and a football field wide/long?

      What is in the crates? What country are they in?

      I heard rumblings from people who understand stock market stuff – folks are saying this is the beginning of the end; yet no mention of a run on the banks. (From what I gather, advocating or even publicly announcing that such a thing is happening is criminal, majorly. Like crying ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.) Is it coincidence that this occurs at the same time? Or something like “oh shit our economy is imploding, gotta exercise emergency powers by way of starting a war, all Reichstag-like. and do it BEFORE further Chinese divestment on our $$$buckeroos, because it would make us look desperate if the economy imploded first and THEN we went to war, so we would have an excuse as why we don’t have to pay off our debt.

      I’m extremely novice in real geopolitics, as you can tell. Its my birthday soon. And then Christmas. Really, all I want is for my country not to go to war. I guess thats a big ask. FML.

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