A Russian pilot deliberately fired missiles at a Royal Air Force surveillance plane in international airspace over the Black Sea last year, the BBC reported on September 14 -- an incident Russia previously attributed to a "technical malfunction." The broadcaster said that intercepted communications suggested that the pilot of a Russian Su-27 fighter jet fired on the unarmed U.K. plane in September 2022 after receiving an ambiguous command from a Russian ground station and that his co-pilot tried to get him to stop.The British Rivet Joint aircraft has sensors to intercept communications, and its crew would have been able to listen to the incident. To read the orginal story by AP, click here.
BBC Says Russian Pilot Tried To Shoot Down British Plane Over Black Sea Last Year
A U.S. Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft (file photo)