In September 2022, a Russian pilot fired two missiles in an attempt to shoot down a British Air Force plane, believing he had permission to do so.
“The Royal Air Force aircraft with a crew of up to 30 people was on a surveillance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace on September 29 last year when it collided with two Russian SU-27 fighters,” the statement said.
It is noted that one of the Russian pilots believed that he was given permission to attack the British plane after an ambiguous command from the Russian ground station. But the second Russian pilot did not and swore at the first pilot when he fired the missile.
The sources noted that the second missile simply fell down, meaning that the weapon was either malfunctioning or the launch was aborted.
The sources also believe that the Russian participants in the incident demonstrated unprofessionalism. Obviously, there was no actual order to shoot down the plane, but the command was so vague that the pilot made a mistake in interpreting it.
Later, the UK accepted an explanation from Russia, which called it a “technical malfunction.”
In a statement to parliamentarians, then-Defense Secretary Ben Wallace called it a “potentially dangerous encounter,” but he maintained that “we do not believe this incident was a deliberate escalation by the Russians, and our analysis is that it was due to a malfunction.”
