Sukhoi Su-27 jet fighters fly in formation during an international air show in Moscow, Russia. Dima Korotayev/Epsilon/Getty Images
- Last year, a Russian jet fired a missile near a British Royal Air Force reconnaissance plane.
- At the time, Russia claimed it was a “technical malfunction” – an explanation the UK accepted.
- However, a new BBC report found that the pilot had actually tried to shoot down the NATO plane but failed.
As the BBC reported on Thursday, Russia covered up a fighter pilot’s attempt to shoot down a NATO plane near Ukraine last year, blaming it on a malfunction.
The pilot of a Russian SU-27 fighter jet fired two missiles at a British RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft on September 29 last year.
At the time, Russia claimed it was a “technical malfunction” – an explanation that British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace also accepted.
But three senior Western defense sources with knowledge of the incident told the BBC that new intercepted communications showed the pilot believed he had permission to fire at the RAF but missed.
One missile failed to hit the target, while another either malfunctioned or aborted shortly after leaving the plane’s wing, the sources said.
The RAF aircraft, with a crew of up to 30 people, was on a surveillance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace when it came into contact with two Russian SU-27 fighter jets.
At that point, the Russian pilots apparently received an order from their ground station controller, who, according to a Western source, vaguely told them: “You have the target,” the BBC reported.
One of the pilots thought it was a fire order and fired an air-to-air missile, which took off successfully but failed to reach its target, the BBC reported.
According to radio messages picked up by the RAF surveillance aircraft, the other pilot of the Su-27 insulted his colleague and asked him what he thought he was doing.
However, this did not stop the first pilot from firing another missile, although it either malfunctioned or was aborted, the sources said.
The Ministry of Defense told the BBC that the incident was “a stark reminder of the potential consequences [Vladimir] “Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine,” but did not reveal the exact communications between the pilots.
At the time of the incident, a U.S. official told the New York Times that the near miss was “really, really scary.”
This underlines the lack of professionalism of the Russian Air Force, the newspaper reported.
Since the incident, RAF flights have been escorted by Typhoon fighter aircraft armed with air-to-air missiles.
A spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
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