The move comes
after a string of similar incidents and amid tense relations with Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine
and a London
inquiry into the poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
The Ministry of
Defence said such incursions by Russian planes were currently running at around
one a month and that the latest happened off the south coast of England .
"Russian
aircraft manoeuvres yesterday are part of an increasing pattern of out of area operations
by Russian aircraft," the Foreign Office said in a statement.
"While the
Russian planes did not enter sovereign UK
airspace and were escorted by RAF Typhoons throughout the time they were in the
UK
area of interest, the Russian planes caused disruption to civil aviation.
"That is why
we summoned the Russian Ambassador today to account for the incident."
The defence
ministry said that the planes involved in the latest incident Wednesday were
Tupolev Tu-95 bombers, known by their NATO classification as Russian
"bears".
A spokesman for the
Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates aviation, said he was "not sure
where this idea has come from" that there had been disruption to civil
aviation.
He suggested it may
have been the two British Typhoons which caused any disruption as they may have
flown through airspace near Bournemouth, southern England , where there is a small
civilian airport.
"It was
probably two Typhoons that were scrambled to intercept that caused some
disruption," he said.
In November, four
Russian navy warships were spotted sailing through the English
Channel and were accompanied by a Royal Navy patrol boat.
No comments:
Post a Comment