THE PILOT of Russia's state-owned jet claimed he was flying a civilian plane. The last Russian state-owned plane invading Finland's airspace in August was officially reported to be operated by Aeroflot, Russia's national airline. The means of distraction became exposed in the preliminary investigation report of Rajavartiolaitos' (The Finnish Border Guard) research over the airspace invasion.
The director of investigation, Vice Commander of Rajavartiolaitos' crime prevention Jukka Tekokoski, told Iltalehti that according to his knowledge, similar tactics have not been used with previous airspace invasions.
"I do not recall previous incidents such as this. The Finnish air-traffic controller operated in an exemplary manner. The incident could have gone completely unnoticed," he appraised.
The incident took place in front of Porvoo 28 August. The air-traffic controller's suspicions were risen, and he refused the Russian aircraft a permission to enter the Finnish airspace. The pilot confirmed for having heard the refusal but claimed to be flying to a previously reported route location, which required flying in Finland's airspace.
The invasion took place despite the attempt to prevent it and ended only when a Finnish destroyer was sent to halt the advancing. The Antonov 72 jet, put in an appearance of an Aeroflot plane, had invaded the Finnish airspace by 4.4 kilometres at deepest.
ILTALEHTI 9 November. HILKKA KARVONEN
LEHTIKUVA / STEVE POWELL
