Dogfighter2111 From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2004, 1968 posts, RR: 1 Posted (7 years 8 months 1 week 1 day ago) and read 3128 times:
The crash of a Russian Su-27 fighter jet in Lithuania has renewed friction between Russia and its Baltic neighbours.
The plane, carrying at least four missiles, veered out of its air corridor and crashed last week, but the pilot ejected and remains in Lithuanian custody.
Odd, I wonder why this is only being found out now or has there already been a topic on this?
Prebennorholm From Denmark, joined Mar 2000, 6019 posts, RR: 55 Reply 1, posted (7 years 8 months 1 week 23 hours ago) and read 3065 times:
What a hype in that article.
Four fighters on a quarterly rotationally basis from Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Denmark or Norway are stationed in the three Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Because those three new NATO countries have no fast military planes in their air forces.
Those four fighters can of course do nothing but observe. And besides that they are not there to shoot down other planes. They are there to observe - period.
When Lithuania allowed Russian military planes to transit over the country between Kaliningrad and mainland Russia, then they also allowed them to accidentally stray off the corridor and crash on Lithuanian soil. There is nothing any NATO fighters can do about that.
From shit happened to stray off course, ejection and crash was probably less than two minutes. Less than spool up time of the J-79 engines of a Luftwaffe Phantom.
If it is correct that the Russians often violated Lithuanian air space, then better keep the pilot and question him about that before he is handed over to Russia.
Always keep your number of landings equal to your number of take-offs, Preben Norholm
TheSonntag From Germany, joined Jun 2005, 3347 posts, RR: 30 Reply 2, posted (7 years 8 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 3048 times:
Shall we shoot down russian Su27s? Bad Idea, even though the fact that a Phantom attacking an Su27 would be pretty interesting (only from a technical point of view, not a political!!!)
Yet, this Su27 posed no threat whatsoever. Airplanes flying into wrong airspace happened before, even during the cold war. Unless we know, why it ended where it dit, I think we should not take this event too serious.
Spacepope From Vatican City, joined Dec 1999, 2739 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (7 years 8 months 1 week 6 hours ago) and read 2993 times:
The NATO planes are NOT there only to observe. The Tornado F3s are routiney flown with Sidewinder, Sky Flash (IIRC) and 90 rounds of cannon ammo. They are well armed and can use it if authorized.
OV735 From Estonia, joined Jan 2004, 860 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (7 years 8 months 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 2912 times:
Quoting Prebennorholm (Reply 1): When Lithuania allowed Russian military planes to transit over the country between Kaliningrad and mainland Russia, then they also allowed them to accidentally stray off the corridor and crash on Lithuanian soil. There is nothing any NATO fighters can do about that.
Actually, the aircraft were performing the flight over a different corridor. As far as I know, Lithuania has granted no special rights for the Russian military aircraft to cross it's airspace.
The Russian military aircraft flying between mainland Russia and Kaliningrad usually start over the Finnish Gulf, flying west between Finland and Estonia (and occasionally cutting into the airspaces of both countries), then proceeding south along the western borders of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian airspaces and into the Kaliningrad Oblast then.
The aircraft in queston was flying on a southerly heading along the Lithuanian coast when it suddenly turned east, flying over Lithuanian territory, below radar visibility zone, past the base for the Phantoms in Siauliai, almost all the way to Kaunas - which is more than a hundred kilometres from the Lithuanian coast. The fighter made many chaotic moves and finally it crashed. It had spent almost 20 minutes in the Lithuanian airspace before.
As said, it was flying below radar coverage area, and as small cuts into the airspaces of the Baltic countries are a standard and common method of provocation for the Russian Air Force, some people have implied that this was also a provocation. Common sense, of course, rules that version out as the Russian Air Force, already in a miserable situation, would not deliberately crash and expensive aircraft for some stupid small political game.
Yet, the Russian officials have (not surprisingly) told lies about it - at first denying that such even occurred in the first place (it did, though, as the wreckage is right there), then by saying that the aircraft did not carry any weapons (again, it did), then claiming that the Lithuanian PM has blamed the Russians of deliberately causing the crash (which he has not).
All in all, I'm glad the pilot survived and there were no fatalities on the ground, either.
Revelation From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 10481 posts, RR: 20 Reply 5, posted (7 years 8 months 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 2891 times:
Yes, but do you remember the Korean Air B747 that flew into Soviet Airspace in the 1980's and was shot down by a Russian Air Force jet because of earlier reports that a B707 USAF Spy Plane was in the area.
Yes, you are right about it. They were flying over international waters of Baltic Sea, and then one of them made a turn, entered Lithuanian airspace, flew for about 20 minutes deep into Lithuania and then crashed.
Current official results of investigation claims that it was probably due to pilot error, which possibly happened due to his lack of time flying in last years (he didn't use all the posibilities for navigation) and errors of dispatchers in Kaliningrad Oblast; as well that the plane wasn't prepared well enough for flight (allegedly, the ammount of fuel in plane was with too little reserve if I remember correctly).
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