Aeroflot flight diverted over Black Sea to avoid NATO spy plane, according to Russian authorities

Russian authorities claimed on Sunday that a “catastrophe” was averted after a Russian A330 airliner was forced to alter course to avoid a NATO “spy plane” over the Black Sea.

According to Rosaviatsia, the Russian Civil Aviation Agency, the incident occurred on Friday morning when the spy plane “descended in a rapid fashion“, crossing an air route shown on the flight plan of an Aeroflot Airbus A330 registered VQ-BMY which operated flight SU501 between Tel Aviv and Moscow Sheremetyevo with 142 people on board.

“The direction and altitude of the civilian plane were immediately changed,” Rosaviatsia continued in a statement sent to AFP on Sunday, adding that the crew of the spy aircraft had not responded to messages from the air traffic controllers.

Russian Interfax news agency said the Russian plane plunged 500 metres to keep clear of the reconnaissance aircraft and its pilots could see it from the cockpit.

Another smaller aircraft, a CL-650 business jet that flew to Skopje from Sochi also altered its course because of the spy plane, according to Rosaviatsia.

Rosaviatsia did not specify the nationality of the spy aircraft, but the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy Maria Zakharova accused the US Air Force of “posing a risk to civil aviation“ in a statement.