Russia almost shot down British RAF spy plane over Black Sea, leaked US intelligence documents reveal

A Russian fighter jet almost shot down an RAF reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea last year, Western intelligence documents show.n an incident in which the UK could have been directly involved The Ukraine War.

On September 29, an RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft was flying through international airspace near the Crimean peninsula in Russia when it was buzzed by a squadron of Moscow’s Su-27 fighter jets.

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace acknowledged the incident at the time, telling parliament that the Russian jets “recklessly” came within 15 feet of the RAF plane and that one “fired a missile close”.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu blamed a technical error and Wallace, speaking with other Russian defense officials, accepted the explanation and drew a line under the incident.

But leaked US military documents have now revealed that the missile launcher came agonizingly close to hitting the RAF plane in an incident described as a “British RJ (kneeling joint) close-range shooting”.

A Russian Su-27 fighter jet shadowing an RAF RC-135 spy plane over the Black Sea in September almost shot down the British plane

Two Russian Su-27 fighter jets were following the British plane when one suffered a “technical malfunction” and fired a missile, Ben Wallace said (file photo)

At the time of the September incident, an RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint spy plane was flying over international waters near Crimea

A British defense source has since disputed this version of events, telling MailOnline: “These reports contain inaccuracies and do not reflect what happened in international airspace over the Black Sea,” referring to Defense Secretary Wallace’s comments in the parliament in October.

Had a Russian missile blown Rivet Joint out of the sky over the Black Sea, Britain and its NATO allies might have been forced into war.

According to Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, member states agree that an armed attack on one or more of them “shall be considered an attack on all of them”.

If such an attack occurs, any NATO member will assist the attacked country with any action it deems necessary.

The RAF regularly conducts reconnaissance missions over the international waters of the Black Sea, the Baltic States and Eastern Poland.

The role of the Rivet Joint aircraft is to absorb electronic transmissions and communications – the aircraft is also known as the “nuclear sniffer” for its ability to detect radioactivity.

British and US aircraft continued to carry out these reconnaissance flights after the chilling incident in September, but RAF surveillance aircraft are now escorted by Typhoon fighters as the US resort to the use of unmanned surveillance drones.

Brig.-Gen. Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder said last month that it was important to keep the Black Sea and the airspace above it open to all nations.

“The Black Sea is an important international sea route that supports many of our NATO allies, including Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, and does not belong to any one country,” he said.

Ryder’s comments came after another air crash last month in which Russian jets dumped fuel on a US surveillance drone and eventually crashed.

Video footage shows the Russian fighter jet approaching the US drone from behind and beginning to release fuel as it flies past, the Pentagon said

After impact, the on-board camera shows a broken propeller (L) and a similarly working propeller (R) spinning. Russia previously said it did not make contact with the drone

Drone footage showed the shocking moment Moscow’s Su-27 jet approached the US MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from behind on March 14 and grazed its propeller over international airspace.

US forces were forced to shoot down the $32 million surveillance drone after the encounter in international waters, sparking a race between Moscow and Washington to get it back.

Russian ships were seen at the crash site on March 15 trying to find the wreckage, although the Pentagon insisted that the parts could not be recovered and all information had been erased.

Moscow insisted its jet made no contact with the drone, instead blaming “sharp manoeuvres” for the crash.

However, experts say it was likely an accidental collision as Russian pilots used increasingly aggressive tactics to force the drone to change course.