U.S. releases footage of drone incident with Russian fighters in the Black Sea
The U.S. military’s European Command has released this Thursday. declassified images of the incident between a Russian Su-27 fighter and a U.S. drone over Black Sea waters that ultimately caused the unmanned craft to crash.
As reported by the U.S. command in a statement, the footage shows the moment when the Russian aircraft was performing a “unsafe and unprofessional interception. of a U.S. Air Force ‘MQ-9’ drone in international airspace over the Black Sea on March 14.”
The U.S. command has also provided a storyboard of how this incident occurred which has increased the tension between Washington and Moscow and which has the war in Ukraine as a backdrop.
According to the script of this video, the event begins when a Russian aircraft approaches the rear of the American “MQ-9”. Shortly after, the Kremlin aircraft begins to release fuel in its path and, as it does so, flies over the drone.
In just a few minutes, the Russian Su-27 starts a second approach towards the “MQ-9”, releases fuel again and passes even closer to the unmanned aircraft.
Soon after, the Russian aircraft collides with the drone and the image from the camera of the “MQ-9.” is lost for about 60 secondsreports the U.S. command. When the camera recovers the transmission it can be seen that the propeller and one of the props of the drone are damaged.
Following the incident, the U.S. government assured that it was forced to. crash the drone into the waters of the Black Sea. and blamed Moscow for the incident, which he said was deliberate.
In contrast, the Russian Defense Ministry denied any contact between its fighters and the drone, which, according to the Kremlin’s version, went into an abrupt uncontrolled flight and collided with the sea after suddenly losing altitude.
The incident took place near the Ukrainian annexed peninsula of Crimea.where Moscow takes a dim view of NATO presence, be it warships or reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft.
