On Friday, May 5 at noon, a Polish Border Guard Let L-410 TURBOLET aircraft was intercepted by a Russian Air Force Su-35 over international waters, which reportedly performed dangerous and unprofessional maneuvers to scare off the NATO aircraft.
The Romanian Ministry of National Defense informed in a press release that «on Friday May 5th, a L410 TURBOLET aircraft belonging to the Polish Border Guard, was intercepted at around 13.20, at approx. 60 km East from Romania’s airspace, by a Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter plane, while performing, in cooperation with Romanian Border Police, a Frontex-coordinated routine patrol mission, in international airspace over the Black Sea.
The aggressive and dangerous maneuvers repeatedly performed by the Russian Federation fighter aircraft in the vicinity of the Polish aircraft generated a high level of turbulence and caused major difficulties in controlling the Polish aircraft..
As a result of the incident, two combat aircraft of the Romanian Air Force and two of the Spanish Air Force designated for Air Police missions were pre-alert by the NATO Combined Air Operations Center in Torrejon, Spain. While the four aircraft were prepared to intervene at any moment, their intervention was not necessary.
The Polish crew acted calmly and professionally in the situation irresponsibly created by the Russian pilot, and were able to fully control the aircraft, after the initial loss of altitude caused by the maneuvers of the Su-35 aircraft, managing to land safely at Mihail Kogălniceanu Airport, around at 13.50. None of the crew members on board the Polish aircraft were injured in this incident.»
The Polish Border Guard indicated that the Russian fighter intercepted their L-410 without any prior radio contact. The Su-35 then made three aggressive approaches to the Polish aircraft, ignoring safety separation distances, coming within only 5 meters of the TURBOLET’s nose, resulting in a lot of turbulence and sudden loss of altitude of the aircraft. Finally, the crew was able to stabilize the aircraft and the plane and its five occupants were able to land without major problems.
The Romanian Government condemned the «aggressive behavior» displayed by the Russian Sukhoi Su-35 during the interception of the Polish TURBOLET, considering this action as «further evidence of the Russian Federation’s provocative approach in the Black Sea«.
