US air traffic provocations over Black Sea continue

Russian Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova comments on air traffic control dangers due to US reconnaissance flights ingoring traffic safety procedures

Originally published by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
via South Front

[ Editor’s Note: I have not fully researched all of these civilian air traffic control incidents by US surveillance aircraft, but I have never heard of them endangering non-Russian flights.

I don’t think they have involved any NATO country air craft. Imagine that. US media seems to consider this conduct uneventful, or it has been told to stay out of it.

Black Sea air and sea traffic could be monitored from satellites that would not endanger civilian air craft. US flights, and especially military ones would be aware of all of this traffic. During the Cold War, adversary air space used to be violated on a regular basis to test the current response times to gather data to prepare tactical scenarios for a shooting war.

The USS Pueblo was collecting North Korean radio traffic with no protective escort when the NKs decided they would up the game by grabbing the undefended ship and get all of its equipment.

Staying just outside North Korean waters that included island boundaries was tricky under normal circumstances, but Captain Bucher had crew talent issues in the department. “I did not have a highly professional group of seamen to do my navigational chores for me.”[9]

Bucher was a long time supporter of the USS Liberty crew, and via them I was able to do a phone interview with Bucher, and it is a pity that I was not recording it at the time.

I share that story because back then the Naval command would not have been interested in hearing from the captain of the Pueblo about how exposed it was for being grabbed, and having no Navy combat forces anywhere near them to intercede.

We have already had one civilian airliner shot down over Ukraine during tense East-West conditions, and Iran shot down one of its own planes due to a jittery air defense crew after the General Soleimani assassination.

These incidents show how a country can sleep walk into a war. Trump certainly has quite a memory of his all nighter when Iran retaliated for Soleimani’s killing, with his entire staff with him, something air brushed out of the history… Jim W. Dean ]

[table “DonateDean” not found /]

First published December 9, 2021

The military activity of the United States and NATO member states along the perimeter of Russia’s borders, including military flights and dangerous manoeuvres by naval ships, continues to mount.

The US military and its NATO allies have gone from attempts to test the strength of our border protection system to provocations against civilian aircraft, which jeopardises the safety of the airspace and puts human lives in danger.