Russian pilot nearly downs UK aircraft thinking he was given permission – BBC
A year ago, a Russian Su-27 aircraft pilot tried to shoot down a UK Royal Armed Forces (RAF) surveillance plane above the Black Sea and launched two missiles thinking he was given permission to fire, even though officially Moscow and London provided a different version of events.
Source: BBC with reference to three sources in Western defence circles, cited by European Pravda
Details: On 29 September 2022, the RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft with a crew of up to 30 persons was on a surveillance mission in the international air space above the Black Sea, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets interjected.
When two Russian Su-27 aircraft approached the UK plane they received a message from a ground dispatcher. One Western source reported that what they heard was: "You have the target". This ambiguous language was interpreted by one of the Russian pilots as permission to fire.
The sources reported that such loose language is a sign of a high level of unprofessionalism of the persons involved in this incident. For instance, the NATO pilots use very precise language when asking for and receiving permission to fire.
Having heard the command, the Russian pilot launched an air-to-air missile but failed to lock on to its target. Sources report that a row then broke out between the two Russian pilots.
The pilot of the second Su-27 did not think they were permitted to fire. He swore at his colleague asking him whether he was even thinking what he was doing.
Despite this, the first pilot released another missile. Sources state that the second missile simply fell which means that it either malfunctioned or that the launch was aborted.
In three weeks, the UK government confirmed that this incident did occur.
The official London accepted the explanations of the Russian side which claimed it was a "technical malfunction".
In a statement to MPs on 20 October, then-State Defence Secretary Ben Wallace called it a "potentially dangerous engagement". But he accepted the Russian explanation, saying: "We do not consider this incident to constitute a deliberate escalation on the part of the Russians, and our analysis concurs that it was due to a malfunction."
However, a secret intelligence leak revealed that the US military spoke of what happened in more stark terms. In a raft of documents posted by US airman Jack Teixera, the same incident was described as "a near shoot-down".
"The incident was far more serious than originally portrayed and could have amounted to an act of war," the New York Times reported.
According to two US defence officials, the newspaper said, the Russian pilot had misinterpreted an order from the ground. The Russian pilot "who'd locked on the British Aircraft, fired, but the missile did not launch properly".
The newspaper also quoted an unnamed US defence official describing the incident "as really, really scary".
Tobias Ellwood, Chair of the Defence Select Committee of the UK Parliament, who has recently resigned, accused Wallace of withholding important details about the surveillance plane incident.
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