Sweden's air force chief, Major General Micael Byden, said the Russian warplane's transponders -- which make the plane detectable to commercial radar -- were shut off.
Swedish Defense Minister called the incident "serious" and "inappropriate," although he added the Russian plane had not violated Swedish air space.
"This is outright dangerous when you turn off the transponder," Hultqvist told Swedish radio.
Both Danish and Swedish jet fighters were scrambled in response to the incident, which comes amid heightened tensions between the West and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia's Defense Ministry denied any of its warplanes had violated Swedish airspace on December 12.
Quoted by TASS, Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said the Russia aircraft's flight had been made "in compliance with international air space rules, not violating borders of other countries and at a safe distance from traffic routes of civilian aircraft."
The commercial plane was reportedly flying to Poland, but it was unclear which airline was operating the flight or how many passengers were on board.
In March, a Russian military jet flying without transponders came within 100 meters of an SAS plane that had taken off from Copenhagen.
On December 11, Polish Defense Minister said Russia's military is engaging in an unprecedented amount of activity around the Baltic Sea.
The minister said that Poland, a member of NATO, was not under threat of attack and the Russian maneuvers were most likely designed to test how NATO forces in the region reacted.
The report by the European Leadership Network detailed almost 40 dangerous or sensitive incidents over the past eight months, including what it says was the near-collision of a Russian spy plane and an SAS jet carrying 132 passengers from Copenhagen to Rome on March 3.
rferl
No comments:
Post a Comment