WASHINGTON \u2014 A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to an American reconnaissance aircraft during an “unprofessional” intercept in international airspace over the Black Sea last month, the Pentagon said Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The American RC-135 was conducting routine operations May 30 when a Russian SU-27 Flanker flew up from behind, passed underneath then crossed over to the American plane’s right-hand side, spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We don’t know exactly why this intercept was conducted unprofessionally,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It may have been a lack of training on the part of the Russian pilot. It may have been just a general level of unprofessionalism of the individual who was flying the Flanker.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CNN reported that the Russian plane came within just 10 feet of the US aircraft. Warren said only that the Russian jet passed at a “distance we felt was unprofessionally and unsafely close.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US plane was intercepted a second time on the same flight, but that was deemed to have been done appropriately, Warren said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian and US planes routinely monitor each other’s movements in international airspace, but this encounter is the latest in a series of incidents sparking concerns over how Russia carries out airborne intercepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On April 7, a Russian Flanker jet performed “aggressive manuevers” in close proximity to a US reconnaissance plane in an incident that occurred over the Baltic Sea, in international airspace north of Poland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Navy last month posted a video on YouTube showing a Russian SU-24 jet flying close to the American guided-missile destroyer USS Ross in the Black Sea. The Navy said the Russian jet was not carrying weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NATO jets have in recent months been scrambled to intercept Russian planes approaching Baltic countries’ airspace, amid tensions over the crisis in Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Russian fighter jet flew dangerously close to an American reconnaissance aircraft during an “unprofessional” intercept in international airspace over the Black Sea last month, the Pentagon said Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":100089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":33,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2793],"class_list":["post-55170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"U7YVP3FGVVET3GON46HLCWLRVM","arc_canonical_url":"\/home\/2015\/06\/12\/pentagon-russian-fighter-flies-dangerously-close-to-us-plane\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n