Russian Su-27 Flankers intercept US B-52, then fly in front of the BUFF dangerously close
Video was released yesterday that shows a Russian fighter jet, a Sukhoi Su-27 “Flanker” intercept a B-52. This happens all the time, but this one was much closer. The fighter waggles his wings, then darts in front of the big mid-century bomber.
This reminds me of the 2001 Hainan Island Incident when a Chinese J-8 fighter did the same thing to a US Navy EP-3, except they made contact. This resulted in the loss of the Chinese aircraft and the death of its pilot. The Americans were interned for more than a week and their plane was never released.
From the Pentagon;
At approximately 11:19 a.m. on Aug. 28, 2020, two Russian Su-27 Flanker pilots intercepted a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber that was conducting routine operations in the black sea over international waters. The Russian pilots flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner while crossing within 100 feet of the nose of the B-52 multiple times at co-altitude and while in afterburner causing turbulence and restricting the B-52’s ability to maneuver.
The B-52 Stratofortress aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace exercising our freedom of navigation and overflight. The U.S. Air Force routinely operates aircraft in the region in accordance with recognized international safety standards as prescribed in International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules of flight.
Here’s the video of the encounter.
Source; The Drive
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Air Force, America, Russia
Its a shame that the BUFF crew is ejection seats, because with Ruskies flying that close it would be a pefect time for some ‘Ham on Glass’.
Watching the video.
All pretty cool. Even a russian wing dip.
Then, flew right in front of the B-52.
So, I assume vodka was involved.
Looks like they got “thumped.” That’s what we Cold War guys called it.
Happened once to me on a mission. Shakes the whole plane when the fighter goes into afterburner.
One time a MIG-23 put its wing right over our wing. Crazy fucker.
“The Americans were interned for more than a week and their plane was never released.”
I wasn’t on that mission, but I flew many, many missions on that plane that went down in Hainan.
I knew a few of the guys who investigated the incident and I knew one of the crew that was on that mission.
The plane was released back to us in July 2001. Of course, after the whole damn thing was reverse engineered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident
Brings back memories of stories
That came out of one of my uncles
Who was stationed up in Alaska
In the 80s. I always thought he was crazy
But he wasn’t !!!
I remember feeling pissed about that at the time. Am I wrong for thinking they should have bailed out and put that bird in the drink instead of hand delivering it to our good pals the ChiComs? You know, those nice people whose pilot was just unsafely buzzing your plane closely enough that he ended up hitting it. I was not in that situation, so I know I didn’t have all the information, it just felt wrong to me.
Was I wrong to feel that way? I assume they got some guidance once they were hit. They could have been directed to land there. That would not make me feel very much better either.
Ditching an EP-3 is a hinky proposition in the best of situations and this definitely was not that.
I’m pretty sure I heard that Osborne, the pilot, decided they had the best chance of survival if they tried to land the plane.
He did his job.
Any compromises fall squarely on personnel in the back of the plane. But, I wasn’t there.
I do know that if I had been on board, I would have been cleaning the shit out of my flight suit for about a week.
I guess we just have to trust that the crew did what they thought was best. One thing I do know is that Shane Osborne earned every bit of that DFC.
MC, that was the premise on the JAG Episode part 1 of all of that. Questioning the pilot, crew ect on why they didn’t bail, ditch, or try to get further away from ChiCom territory. The pilot gave all the reasoning that you just did, plus they had people injured by the ChiCom pilot hitting their aircraft. The plot did bring up the fact that more time should have been taken by the techs to dump the info and or the systems to keep them from getting it.
Don’t know, I, like you and most of us, weren’t there. You do have a very distinct advantage on us by having served on that aircraft AND knowing people that were on the mission. What I know of it came from the news reports when the plane was forced down and a re-run of a Hollyweird production.
I do know this. Back in my days of nursemaiding Baby Nukes, there were certain files, programs, and equipment that was to NOT fall into ANYONE’S hands…no matter what else was happening. Some of it we kept wired with thermite/willypete/C-4. Some of it we weren’t even supposed to wait for the last man standing/last man out to blow ’em.
Iffen that’d of put the wings and motors on that plane properly instead of all upside down and catty whoompus, the crew mighta been able to bail easier. (ducks AW1Ed’s thrown flight helmet and grabs the yellow and black handle to hang on to)
I will say that there were fuck ups and that’s as far as I’m prepared to go. It was not a pretty evolution.
Thanks. I knew there were things that I wouldn’t have considered. Ditching in what has to be shark-infested waters doesn’t sound very appealing, either. I would think that flying until you have about 2 lbs of fuel to give the back seaters enough time to break things would be the way to go if landing was your option. Hoping they at least did that.
Question – can you throw items out of the plane in flight? That seems like it would be good to have some means of doing that as opposed to breaking things which seems like it would take a lot of time.
I know that it’s been done in a P-3.
Shouldn’t be a problem in an EP-3E.
I stand corrected. I was going off memory. I thought the Chinese kept the plane ala USS Pueblo, but they just kept it long enough to document every square centimeter.
“Hey Boris, you wanna f^ck with the Yankee Imperialist this time or should I?” “Go ahead Ivan, I buzzed them the last time. Besides that, I don’t trust the chute on my ejection seat and don’t want to go for a swim today if something goes wrong.” “It’s OK Boris, that chute has only been packed since Saddam’s pilot flew it out of Bagdad in January of ’91, and the Wing Commander said he will trade a Flanker for a BUFF any day.”
DaHell are we doing letting a BUFF cruise around without an F15 riding shotgun?
Odd we mention that misconstructed C130 that the Navy sat down, broke, in China. Just the other day, 3 of the episodes of JAG were loosely based on that situation. Y’all may recall, one of the FA18 Flyboys went all Rogue Maverick on the ChiComs ass, slipped in, cooked their goose, and put that aircraft on ice, man. IIRC the pile it of the P3 got courts-martialed, same as the F18 driver. Oh and Catherine Bell was looking fine as all outdoors.
Russians seem to be pushing their luck lately.
This incident, few other flight incidents, the sub that surfaced, the ramming of the MRAP by another vehicle (Minor injuries) and the harassment of the same MRAP by a helicopter.
They are walking a thin line there…….How long before someone gets killed, or an aircraft goes down…….?
Time to put the tail guns back on.
Sounds like a plan…
It does seem odd that President Trumps buddy Putin would have his flyboys do this kinda shit doesn’t it?? Or could it be that the whole Russia collusion thing is just leftist bullshit???
To the re-education camp with you!