Ben Wallace urges respect for international airspace as presumption grows incident was one-off blunder by Russian pilot
, accused Russia of acting “unprofessionally” in an incident that led to the downing of a $32m US Reaper drone in the Black Sea after it was harassed by two Russian fighter jets.the extraordinary mid-air incident“The Americans have said they think it was very unprofessional,” Wallace said as he was filmed walking around a defence industry conference. “The key here is that all parties respect international airspace; we urge the Russians to do so.
Overnight, a US air force official told ABC News the incident lasted at least half an hour, with the two Russian jets buzzing close to the drone 19 times, spraying jet fuel on the last three or four times. The collision happened at the end, when one of the Su-27s approached the Reaper at speed from behind, colliding as it pulled up.
The US did not immediately say what kind of mission the Reaper had been undertaking, but it is likely that it was conducting long-distance surveillance of Ukraine and the war. The size of a small aircraft, with a 20-metre wingspan, it can fly at an altitude of up to 50,000ft and has a range of about 1,400 nautical miles.
Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, was summoned to the US state department following the incident. After the meeting last night, he accused the US of mounting “a provocation” but emhasised that “we do not want any confrontation between the United States and Russia”.
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