A Russian Su-27 - which looks similar to this F-15 Eagle - reportedly nearly shot down a British spy plane last October. Tech. Sgt. M. Plew/USAF/SWNS
NYPost: Russian fighter jet nearly shot down British spy plane, according to leaked US military documents
A Russian fighter jet nearly shot down an unarmed British reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea in September — a confrontation described in leaked US military documents as more significant than previously known, according to a report Sunday.
UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace told the British House of Commons in October that one of the two Russian Su-27 fighters that intercepted the RC-135 surveillance plane off the coast of Crimea “released a missile” at a distance, according to the Washington Post.
He attributed it to a “technical malfunction,” and said he’d spoken to his Russian counterparts about the incident. But the mid-air scuffle appears to have been more serious than that, according to one of the leaked documents circulating online, the Washington Post reported.
That document referred to the incident as a “near-shoot down of UK RJ,” which is a reference to a commonly-used nickname for the British spy plane, the report said.
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Update #1: MISSILE CHAOS Russia nearly SHOT DOWN British jet in terrifying near miss off the coast of Ukraine, leaked military documents reveal (The SUN)
Update #2: British spy plane was nearly shot down by Russia in September: leaked docs (The Hill)
Update #3: A Russian fighter jet nearly shot down an unarmed British reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea in September (RT)
WNU Editor: It is an open secret that the U.S. and the U.K. are giving targeting data to Ukraine via through these spy flights. I am sure there has been other close incidents like this one.