MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/. A NATO reconnaissance aircraft has been spotted over the neutral waters of the Black Sea for the first time since the beginning of September, where it has been circling for six hours now, a source in the European Union’s air traffic control services told TASS.

The Bombardier Artemis II is permanently based at the airfield in Constanta, Romania, and flies almost daily. "This is the first time since early September that it has been spotted over the southern part of the Black Sea, along which it is flying from west to east and back," said the source. He noted that earlier in September, the aircraft operated in the Baltic region and circled around Russia’s Kaliningrad Region several times, using the airspace of Poland and Lithuania, as well as areas over the Baltic Sea neutral waters.

"Currently over the Black Sea, the aircraft is flying at an altitude of over 10.5 km without using the corridors designated for civil aviation. It is not entering the airspace of any coastal country except Romania," the source noted. The aircraft is making a turn over Romanian territory, including in the immediate vicinity of the border with Ukraine.

The source recalled that this past summer, Bombardier set sort of a record by spending nine hours in the air over the Black Sea.