Flanker Busted in Lithuania

KarimAbdoun · by **KarimAbdoun** » 14 Nov 2005, 09:04

According to AFM, a Russian Air Force Su-27 Flanker crashed as it strayed from a formation of six fighters and one A-50 AWACS aircraft flying close to the Russian-Lithuanian border, the reports announced that the aircraft crashed near from the border lines, this air violation was considered not to be international, but after the pilot was examined in a nearby hospital and then the next day was defriefed as being a "witness to an accident" according to Lithuanian authorities, and a 6 hour interogation, prosecutment is now treating the pilot as a suspect for suspicious air violation of the Lithuanian airspace. The Flanker was loaded with 4 air-to-air missiles, all were recovered and disarmed.

IDCrewDawg · by **IDCrewDawg** » 14 Nov 2005, 14:01

Isn't that what the 23EFS is there to prevent?

akruse21 · by **akruse21** » 14 Nov 2005, 15:11

think this is the previous incident from a while back, there is another thread on it.

ACSheva · by **ACSheva** » 14 Nov 2005, 18:48

Correct. This incident happend about 8 weeks ago, and it ultimately brought the NATO interceptor squadrons under quistion. Russians have got the damaged plane back, and its 4? missiles. So its all over.

Shev

boff180 · by **boff180** » 14 Nov 2005, 19:24

Yeah, the unit on standby then was a Luftwaffe F-4... some people claim that they "shot it down" but its pretty much accepted they were escorting the aircraft out of Lithuanian airspace when it ran into difficulties.

Andy

ACSheva · by **ACSheva** » 14 Nov 2005, 22:03

they were escorting the aircraft out of Lithuanian airspace when it ran into difficulties.

According to first reports of BBC, the F4s never even left the ground. So bassicly the Flanker crashed on his own, the Phantoms were caught with their pants down.

Shev

boff180 · by **boff180** » 14 Nov 2005, 22:05

Yeah I read the BBC report, but a report actually from Lithuania a few days later said they did intercept it but as with these things we probably wont know for many years.

KarimAbdoun · by **KarimAbdoun** » 16 Nov 2005, 09:17

According to AFM, 2 F-4s were launched and reached the Sukhoi in eight minutes but by the time they reached it, it was already down and the pilot ejected.

TC · by TC » 17 Nov 2005, 01:46

May I plead ignorance here, as I have no knowledge of the incident, but what would the Germans care about a Russian jet flying into Lithuanian airspace?

Are the Germans sitting Zulu alert for the Lithuanians?

D@mn. Talk about adding insult to injury! The poor b@$tard has the jet he's sitting on go Tango Uniform, has to bail out, and on top of all of that, is arrested and detained.

Bad day to be a Flanker Flyboy I guess...

To Err is Human. To Forgive is NOT ACC Policy.

boff180 · by **boff180** » 17 Nov 2005, 08:46

The Russians have constantly been overflying Lithuania without permission with both unarmed and armed aircraft... mainly shuttling to an Russian enclave to the west of Lithuania... they do it as they use less fuel than flying through international airspace "feet wet" to get aircraft to the enclave.

When Lithuania joined NATO they complained about these overflights that are continuing to this day. In response, NATO keeps a permanent detachment on QRA in Lithuania to deter these overflights and go up to intercept any that happen.

The first deployment started near christmas last year with the RAF, since then the Belgians and Germans have performed the QRA and I believe a few others.. I think at the moment or very near future its the USAFE with F-16s from Spang.

Andy

KarimAbdoun · by **KarimAbdoun** » 17 Nov 2005, 18:03

Not only to Lithuania, but also for Estonia and Latvia.

More on the story from AFM:

The pilot, Major Velery Troyanov, ejected safely and was taken to a nearby hospital for examination.

The Sukhoi was carrying 4 air-to-air missiles which were buried 16-20ft (5-6m)in the ground were disarmed once uncovered.

Lithuanian prosecutor Mindaugas Duda said that after a 6 hour interrogation with the pilot as a witness, he was held now as a suspect for the a case on suspicion of violating International flight regulations although at first the violation was not considered to be international. The pilot is now under house arrest in Vilnius.

The Lithuanian Armed forces commander says that he believes the violation was unintentional.

The analysis of the flight recorders have commenced and still work is in progress.