A Russian fighter jet has yet again performed a barrel roll over a U.S. reconnaissance plane flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, U.S. officials said, in a dangerous maneuver that violates standard protocols.
It’s the second such “unsafe” intercept this month. A Russian jet conducted a similar maneuver less than two weeks ago.
The Friday incident, first reported by CNN, involved an Su-27 jet and an RC-135 reconnaissance plane.
The encounter comes just two days after Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he thought the Russians would “knock it off” after high level military-to-military discussions with Moscow. “These pilots need to get the word, hey, knock it off. This is unprofessional. This is dangerous. This could lead somewhere,” Carter told senators.
Carter told the committee he had no idea if the hotdogging was ordered by Moscow, or whether the pilots were acting on their own.
“It is unprofessional behavior, and whether it is encouraged from the top, whether it was encouraged from higher up or not I can’t say. But we do expect it to be discouraged from higher up from now on.”
This month, Russian attack jets also buzzed the U.S. Navy destroyer Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea. Videos showed that the Russian Su-24 attack plane flew within about 30 feet of the U.S. ship.
