The ‘unsafe and unprofessional’ incident came just days after Russian aircraft repeatedly buzzed the USS Donald Cook

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A Russian fighter jet that flew close to a US spy plane last week performed a barrel roll during the manoeuvre, according to a Pentagon spokesman.



Pentagon spokesman Navy captain Jeff Davis said a Russian Su-27 flew less than 50ft (15 meters) from the wingtip of an RC-135 reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Baltic Sea last Thursday.

Russian attack jets buzz US warship in riskiest encounter for years Read more

It then “conducted a barrel roll from the left side of the aircraft, going over the top of the aircraft, and ended up on the right side of the aircraft”, Davis said.

Thursday’s “unsafe and unprofessional” incident came just days after Russian aircraft repeatedly buzzed the USS Donald Cook in a series of incidents decried by the US military.

In one case, a Russian Su-24 flew 30ft (nine meters) above the warship in a “simulated attack profile”, according to the US military’s European Command.

Ties between Russia and the west have plunged to their lowest point since the cold war over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Kiev and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

It did not appear that the Russian jets were armed in any of the incidents, the Pentagon said.