Russia says Su-27's barrel roll over US aircraft was not dangerous
Military commanders in Moscow insist on compliance of the Russian fighter jet with international rules in the case of the incident with a US spy plane over the Baltic Sea.
Russian fighter jet Su-27 did not commit a dangerous rapprochement with the US Air Force aircraft in the skies over the Baltic Sea. The official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Major General Igor Konashenkov, made such a statement on Sunday, April 17. According to him, "the entire flight of the Russian aircraft strictly complied with international regulations on the use of airspace, there was no emergency situations."
Konashenkov said that the Su-27 was alerted on April 14 in connection with the discovery by the Russian Air Defense Forces of an unknown object headed at a high speed towards the Russian border. The Russian fighter jet was sent to identify the target and discovered it was "a US Air Force RC-135U reconnaissance plane." The Defense Ministry spokesman said that after visual contact with the Russian aircraft, the American pilots changed course in the opposite direction from the state border of the Russian Federation.
Earlier, the US Defense Department representative, Laura Forces, said that the Russian fighter Su-27 approached the US Air Force spy plane "in a dangerous and unprofessional manner" which was performing a scheduled flight in international airspace over the Baltic Sea. As explained by the representative of the European Command of the US Armed Forces, Danny Hernandez, to CNN, the Russian fighter jet executed a barrel roll over the American aircraft, coming within a distance of 15 meters.