Two Turkish fighter jets were scrambled on Tuesday to intercept a Russian military plane in international airspace over the Black Sea in a rare air incident between the two countries.
The General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement on Wednesday that two F-16 jets were scrambled on Tuesday afternoon to prevent a potential violation of Turkish airspace after a Russian Ilyushin II-20 plane was detected flying in parallel to Turkish coast.
Turkish jets intercepted the plane off the port city of Ordu on the Black Sea coast and monitored its flight from the Georgian border in the east through to the Bulgarian border, it added.
It was not immediately clear why the Russian plane approached Turkish airspace. Such air incidents between the two countries are rare.
There has been no comment so far from Russian military sources.
source: commonspace.eu with agencies.
photo: An Ilyushin Il-20 (archive picture)
