Russia nearly shot down a British spy plane, leaked documents suggest

Incident described as ‘really, really scary’ by a US defence official briefed on the encounter

A Russian fighter jet had fired a missile at a manned British aircraft over the Black Sea last September in what could have amounted to an act of war, leaked classified intelligence has suggested.

The near shoot-down was due to miscommunication between the pilot and ground radar operator, according to a report from The New York Times published on Wednesday.

The pilot had locked on to the British aircraft and fired, but the munition malfunctioned and failed to fire properly, according to US defence officials and a recently leaked classified intelligence report cited by NYT.

The US defence officials told the publication that the Russian pilot misinterpreted what a radar operator on the ground was saying to him and thought he had permission to fire.

The near shoot-down took place between a four-engine aircraft known as an RC-135 Rivet Joint – a spy plane – and two Russian Su-27 fighter jets, said two US defence officials with direct knowledge of the incident.

The British C-135 Rivet Joint aircraft often has a crew of around 30 people and is capable of intercepting radio traffic.

According to the US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the British aircraft was listening to intercepted communications between a Russian radar controller on the ground when one of the pilots of the Russian Su-27s was dispatched to monitor the aircraft.

The incident was described as “really, really scary” by one of the defence officials briefed on the encounter.

In October, British defence secretary Ben Wallace had told the Commons that the Russian fighter jet had “released a missile” in the vicinity of an RAF aircraft over the Black Sea.

He had not described the incident as a near shoot down.

He had said the incident occurred in “international airspace over the Black Sea” on 29 September and added that an “unarmed RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint” was “interacted with by two Russian armed SU-27 fighter aircraft”, one of which “released a missile in the vicinity of the RAF Rivet Joint beyond visual range”.

Mr Wallace informed the Commons that he had communicated with the Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and the reply he received stated that the incident was “a technical malfunction of the Su-27 fighter”.

A British defence official, however, told NYT that “a significant proportion” of the contents of the reports were “untrue” and “manipulated”.

“A significant proportion of the content of these reports is untrue, manipulated, or both. We strongly caution against anybody taking the veracity of these claims at face value and would also advise them to take time to question the source and purpose of such leaks,” the statement said.

The leaked documents also said that between 1 October and 22 February, British, French and American flights reacted to six different events in which Russian aircraft approached their patrols from distances of six nautical miles to just 100ft.