Iceland says 3 Russian Tu-160s flew below commercial flight

The Icelandic foreign ministry has complained that three Russian Air Force Tu-160 bombers flew between 6,000 and 9,000 feet below a passenger plane that departed Reykjavik and bound for Sweden.

Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack formation - Zhukovsky 2012 (8694274276)
Alan Wilson [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The ministry says its objecting to the flights “due to the danger this may pose to passenger flights” as the Russian aircraft failed to identify themselves.

A spokesman with the Russian embassy in Reykjavik played down the incident saying is was “an excuse to open the (US) naval base in Keflavik again.”

One thought on “Iceland says 3 Russian Tu-160s flew below commercial flight

  1. More likely it was to test the radar station’s ability to distinguish the separate targets. One of the stealth features is to get underneath the tail of an airliner and follow it in. That way when it begins to descend the bomber can break away and start the attack.

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