Russia almost shot down a British plane near Crimea

It could have turned out differently: according to a previously classified document from the US Department of Defense, a Russian fighter jet nearly shot down a British reconnaissance aircraft in September 2022. This is reported by the Washington Post, which has the document in its hands. According to the article, the incident took place in the airspace off the coast of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula.

The document is part of a larger leak of documents from the Pentagon. According to the Washington Post, the incident over the Black Sea would be listed there as a “near shot”. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace informed the House of Commons of the British Parliament a few days after the incident, which is believed to have occurred on September 29, 2022.

Wallace related the incident to the House of Commons. As a result, two Russian Su-27 fighter jets allegedly intercepted a British RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Black Sea. The Russian fighter jets would have behaved aggressively and dangerously towards the British aircraft in the air – one of the fighter jets would have flown within four and a half meters of the RC-135.

According to Wallace, one of the fighter jets then fired a missile at the British plane “from a further distance”. Senior Russian military officials later assured him that the missile launch was due to a technical malfunction in one of the fighter jets and not a targeted attack.

The incident is particularly explosive due to NATO regulations: if the missile had hit the British aircraft, the incident could have triggered the activation of NATO articles four or five. The first comes into effect when a NATO member state considers its territorial integrity or general security to be at risk. Article five comes into force as soon as there is an armed attack against one of the member states. The attack is then counted as an attack against the entire military alliance.

At the request of the Washington Post, both the Pentagon and the embassies of Britain and Russia declined to comment on the “near shot” over the Black Sea.

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