Member of European Parliament, Urmas Paet, submitted a written question to European Commission concerning an increase in Russian military planes flying in European airspace, and creating a risk for passenger planes.
According to Paet there is an increasing number of Russian military planes flying in European airspace, including Baltic Sea region, with their communication systems switched off and not communicating with dispatchers. “This is a direct threat to civil planes who are not able to see the Russian military planes via their communication systems.”
Paet asked which actions will European Commission take in order to assure aviation and passenger security. “One possibility is to initiate a change in international agreements, so that military flights with switched off communication systems would not be acceptable any more”, he said.
Paet noted that action needs to be taken before anything serious in very tight European airspace happens.