“a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker in an unsafe and unprofessional manner”
Man, that surely brings back some old memories...
Something tells me that the pilots would have landed in Russian territory and handed the RC-135U over to the Russians just like they did in 2001 with the P3 had the Russian pilot ‘connected’.
/s
(propaganda-ping)
This was a big deal, as not only was it the first Tomcat lost with a Phoenix on it, the Soviets saw it and knew exactly where it was.
The Tomcat went over the side near the waist cat (faulty fuel control, as I recall) on the port side, and the Soviet cruiser was about the 2 o'clock position off our starboard bow probably a few miles away, and when the plane went over the side, they poured on the steam to cut across our bow to get a better look a the action they couldn't see, and one of our destroyers cut right across their bow blocking their path.
Such were the state of affairs in the Cold War...we used to have Soviet trawlers trailing us, and when you looked through the binoculars at them, there seemed like 10 sailors on there with binoculars just looking back at you.
One time, when my plane was tied down near the fantail, me and one of my buddies pulled down our pants to moon them. We thought for sure there would have been some response, laughing or such, but...they just stood unmoving, watching through their binoculars.
Brings back old days with China April 2001 and Spy Plane had to land on Military base in China.Chinese pilot died