Russia denies it made an unsafe interception of US Navy plane.

A US Navy P-8A Poseidon. Wikipedia/Darren Koch.

Russia is denying that it made an unsafe interception of an US Navy P-8A Poseidon. UPI. The US Navy claims that one of their P-8A Poseidon's was challenged by an SU-35 Flanker multiple times while flying over international airspace above the Mediterranean Sea. On the 2nd pass the Navy claims that the SU-35 came too close to the P-8A and flew directly in front of the plane. Russia said that the plane was picked up on radar from their Syrian airbase at Hmeymim. They said that the interaction was safe and that the United States did not call them on their de-confliction line. 

My Comment:

Just a quick post about what is an almost monthly or weekly occurrence. Russia has long been intercepting our planes while they are out on patrol and we do the same thing to them. Sometimes pilots get a little dangerous and do something stupid like this. 

It's not clear if the pilot was ordered to do this or if he was just hotdoging it. Russia does like to throw their weight around but so do fighter jet pilots. It's very possible that the pilot was doing this on his own, but it's also very possible that he was ordered to do so. 

The main problem with this is that a pilot on either side could miscalculate and a midair collision could happen. That would be a disaster for both sides and could even increase tensions between the United States and Russia. It could also kill or injure the pilots and crew of the airplanes. 

This is why I think that these interceptions are pretty stupid. Neither side gets much gain out of harassing planes in unsafe ways, but everyone seems to do it, including other countries besides Russia and the United States. Sooner or later though someone is going to get hurt...