The Ministry of defence of Switzerland commented on the fact that the support of F-18 aircraft of the airline “Russia” with the government delegation and journalists, writes Reuters.
According to the press-Secretary of the Department, it was just a routine “authentication” flying in the sky of the country aircraft.
“It’s like checking the car on the street by a police patrol, to make sure it was not stolen”, — quotes Agency of the representative of the Ministry of defense of Switzerland.
According to him, the fighters were accompanied by the Russian side for seven minutes during the flight over the territory of the country. During the year, the Ministry reported, the Swiss air force check about 400 foreign aircraft during flight over the territory of the country.
About the incident in the sky of Switzerland, it became known on Friday evening, November 18. The Il-96-300 with Russian delegation and journalists on Board, who was in Peru at a summit of the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation (APEC) in the sky of Switzerland was met by two F-18 fighter jet, who for some time accompanied him.
This was written aboard the Russian car journalists. According to the “Interfax”, which was part of the pool of journalists, the commander of the crew explained to the passengers that this route “is a common practice”.
Russian Embassy in Switzerland has sent a note to the authorities of the country in which expressed surprise and asked for an explanation about the incident. Later the official representative of Russian foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that Moscow is “appropriate” will react to the explanations of the Swiss authorities regarding the incident with the plane of the Russian delegation.
“Once again, what is of particular concern to the passengers of the Russian plane called close enough, which approached the fighter. We did not leave unnoticed the media reports on this topic. Our Embassy in Switzerland requested a clarification from the Swiss side. Waiting for explanations, and accordingly they will react when they are received”, — she declared on air of TV channel “Russia 24” (quoted by TASS).
The flight with reporters later, was again in news when while refueling in Lisbon in one of the engines was discovered the fault. The ship was detained for 22 hours, events in the capital of Peru began without Russian journalists. On Saturday evening, November 19, after the Lisbon arrived spare aircraft parts, the fault was corrected and the Board with the journalists went to the 11-hour flight to Peru.
