Friday, January 30, 2015

Russian Bombers Intercepted Over English Channel

bomber russia
A photo taken in October and provided by Britain’s Royal Air Force shows a Russian “Bear” bomber 

From The Guardian:
Russian ambassador summoned to explain bombers over the Channel 
British Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the two Russian planes, which were flying close to UK airspace

The Foreign Office summoned Moscow’s ambassador to London this afternoon to complain about a flight by two Russian bombers over the Channel, which Britain says posed a potential danger to civilian flights.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that RAF Typhoon jets were scrambled to intercept a pair of Tupolev 95 “Bear” planes on Wednesday, as they flew along the south coast. A spokeswoman said: “The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace.”

A FCO spokeswoman said: “While the Russian planes did not enter sovereign UK airspace and were escorted by RAF Typhoons throughout the time they were in the UK area of interest, the Russian planes caused disruption to civil aviation. That is why we summoned the Russian ambassador to account for the incident.”...MORE
RAF Fighter Command was unavailable for comment.