A Russian fighter jet collided with an American Reaper drone over the Black Sea, bringing the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) down, the US military confirmed on Tuesday.
The US military said one of two Russian fighters jet clipped the propeller of the drone, forcing the US to bring it down in the area of intense NATO military activity close to the Ukraine war frontlines, amid Russia’s on-going invasion of the country.
‘Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,’ U.S. Air Force General James Hecker, who overseas the US Air Force in the region, said in a statement.
‘In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash,’ he added, saying the incident ‘follows a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots…over intl airspace.’
President Biden was briefed Tuesday morning on the incident, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, calling it “unprofessional” and “unsafe.”
“It is not uncommon for there to be intercepts by Russian aircraft of U.S. aircraft over the Black Sea,” Kirby said. “And there have been, even in just recent weeks, there have been other intercepts. But this one obviously is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was … in causing the downing of one of our aircraft.”
One Western source said earlier that an investigation was underway to check whether the drone had been shot down.
It was quickly clarified that a collision had occurred between a US-made MQ-9 Reaper and a Russian Su-27 fighter jet at 7:03am CET (6:03am GMT).
It was not immediately clear why the drone was operating in the region.
