Russia expects explanations from Bern regarding fighters’ escort of Russian planehttp://tass.com/politics/913461
GENEVA, November 19. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Switzerland has sent a note to that country’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), where it expressed bewilderment over the approach of the Swiss Air Force’s fighters to the plane of the Rossiya Special Flight Group and asked to give explanations, the embassy’s press service told TASS on Saturday.
"As the fighters approached the Russian plane, we have sent a note to FDFA, which contains bewilderment and request for explanations, as the permission for the flight had been received well in advance," the embassy’s press service said.
On November 18, a plane of the Rossiya Special Flight Group headed to Peru’s capital city for the APEC summit. It was met by fighters of the Swiss Air Force in the air space of that country, and was escorted to the border with France. Among the passengers on board the Il-960300 were members of President Vladimir Putin’s delegation and reporters.
Passengers of the Russian plane spotted the Swiss fighters which moved at a small interval parallel to the plane. Appearance of the fighters close to the plane caused clear disarray on board the Russian plane. The crew hurried to calm down the passengers, saying escort of the kind is used regularly on certain routes.
The Rossiya Special Flight Group is engaged in aviation services for Russian top officials, including the president and prime minister, as well as members of their delegations during official visits abroad or working trips across Russia.
To add: the Russian plane was following a pre-declared civilian route, at a civilian flight corridor and was tracked by the civilian Swiss ATC. So the appearance of the fighter jets was meant as a threatening act of provocation.
I read here (in Russian) about another similar harassment, experianced by a Russian pilot from American fighter jets over Turkey, flying from Baghdad to Turkey:
https://cont.ws/post/434740The pilot in the above article further states that the planes on civilian routes must not approach each other closer than 30km on crossing paths and not be closer than 10km on parallel paths.
The jet in the picture, judging by the detail visibility is about 50-100 meters away from the Russian airliner.
