LONDON: British Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian Bear long-range bombers which had flown close to UK airspace on Wednesday, Britain’s ministry of defence (MoD) said in a statement.
On Thursday Britain summoned the Russian ambassador and asked him to explain why Russian bombers had flown over its airspace.
“We summoned the Russian ambassador to account for the incident which disrupted civil aviation,” a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
The Russian planes were detected flying over the English Channel, south of England, and typhoons were launched from Royal Air Force (RAF) bases at Lossiemouth, Scotland, and Coningsby, eastern England, the MoD said.
“The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace,” the ministry said in a statement.
Last year, Nato conducted more than 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft, about three times as many as in 2013, amid sharply increased tensions between the West and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.
Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015
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