This Saturday saw heightened tension in the sky as NATO airspace was breached by a Russian spy plane, an IL-20M.
The German Air Force Command announced that Berlin’s fighter jets intercepted and escorted the Russian plane away from NATO airspace near the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. The German pilots launched their mission from the base in Laage (Rostock), with support from the Swedish Air Force and NATO’s Baltic Air Traffic Control service. They escorted the Russian aircraft out of NATO airspace,” the German Air Force Command stated on the platform X.
Meanwhile, BILD reports that the Russian reconnaissance plane flew without a flight plan and without contact with civil air traffic control, creating a potentially dangerous precedent.
“Reports of unannounced Russian military aircraft flights in international airspace over the Baltic Sea have emerged almost weekly recently,” a spokesperson for the German Air Force said.
According to him, such flights are usually not investigated except in cases of suspicious behavior or quick returns to Russian airspace.
“On Friday, the German Air Force had to intervene,” he added.
