MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. A US-registered NATO reconnaissance aircraft spent nine hours over international waters in the Black Sea, matching its previous record, a source in air traffic control services told TASS.

"The Bombardier ARTEMIS II took off from an airfield in Constanta, Romania, and began flying over the southern Black Sea at about 9:40 a.m. Moscow time (6:40 a.m. GMT - TASS), heading west to east and back at an altitude of around 11 km," the source said.

During several turns, the aircraft approached the Romanian-Ukrainian border area but did not enter the airspace of any coastal country other than Romania, he noted.

"The aircraft joined its flight route via a waypoint over international waters in a sector managed by Bulgarian air traffic controllers," the source added. It is now coming in to land, he said.

The aircraft previously spent nine hours over the Black Sea in late July, setting the record it matched today, the source recalled.

On November 2, the same plane spent more than four hours near the Kaliningrad Region, flying around the area through Polish and Lithuanian airspace and over parts of the Baltic Sea.

Earlier reports said a British Royal Air Force Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft had also been spotted over the central Black Sea in the afternoon. It was the aircraft’s first appearance in the area since late September.