MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. A US-registered NATO reconnaissance aircraft has been detected for the first time since the beginning of this week near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, where it is currently flying, a source in air traffic control services told TASS.
It is a Bombardier ARTEMIS II reconnaissance aircraft, which flies nearly every day along several routes, including over the Black Sea, the central part of the Baltic states, and the airspace near the Kaliningrad Region. "The aircraft was detected near the Russian region for the first time this week, flying at an altitude of about 10.5 km, using the airspace of Poland and Lithuania, as well as sectors over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea," the source said. Prior to that, according to the source, the aircraft’s flight had only been recorded last Monday, when it was flying over the Mediterranean Sea.
The source noted that the aircraft took off from its permanent base in Constanta, Romania, and is expected to return there within a few hours. "The aircraft is operating outside the civil aviation corridors," the source noted.
In this regard, he recalled that over the past two days, another reconnaissance aircraft, a Gulfstream S102B Korpen belonging to the Swedish Air Force, had been detected in Finnish airspace, where it was flying over areas near the border with Russia. In early October, that same aircraft also flew for several hours each day for five consecutive days over neutral waters in the southern part of the Black Sea, once together with the aforementioned Bombardier Artemis II.