Israeli passager flight to Russia forced to reduce altitude due to spy plane
Israeli passager flight to Russia was forced to reduce altitude due to the presence of a spy plane
An unnamed air traffic control source told Russia’s Interfax news agency that a Isreal passenger flight flying from Tel Aviv to Moscow was ordered to change altitude over the Black Sea due to the presence of a spy plane.
When a spy plane entered a civilian flight route, air traffic control directed the passenger plane to decrease its course by 500 meters (1,640 feet).
The incident occurred on Friday, according to the report, when a spy plane crossed a civilian flight path. Russia’s state aviation authority declined to comment on the report. A source told Moskovsky Komsomolets, a Russian tabloid, that the same thing was true.
According to an Interfax source, air traffic control instructed the passenger plane to reduce its speed by 500 meters (1,640 feet).
The passenger plane’s operator was not identified in the press stories, but Flightradar24 data showed that an Aeroflot flight from Tel Aviv to Moscow on Friday lowered its altitude for a brief period over the Black Sea.
Russia’s Defense Ministry had announced that fighter jets had been dispatched to accompany two US military observation planes over the Black Sea.
The US Embassy in Moscow had no immediate response on the Interfax article from Saturday.
