Air force chief: Russian planes' flights near border are no sign of danger

Photo: SCANPIX

According to the commander of the Estonian Air Force, Col. Jaak Tarien, there is nothing special about Russian military planes making flights near the Estonian border and there is no reason to panic.

According to Tarien there has been more talk about military planes approaching Estonia but it is definitely not a direct threat to Estonia. Flights are taking place like they have always taken for decades, Tarien said and added that he does not see that as something extraordinary. «For the past 10 years when NATO's Baltic air policing mission has taken place and we have carried out air surveillance, we have monitored such flights and NATO's air policing has also reacted adequately to these,» Tarien told BNS.

«From time to time flights that are of interest are being identified and escorted. It is a routine activity and is not only characteristic of NATO -- states not belonging to NATO also carry out identification flights near their airspace and escort planes that are of interest,» Tarien said. «When border violations have taken place, the public has been notified. But when Estonia's sovereignty is not breached we do not see a reason to mention routine identification flights. But if such a thing is brought up we don't cover it up,» he added.

According to Tarien transit between Russia and Kaliningrad has taken place for twenty years and is quite ordinary. «Yes, the number of flights has increased in the past few years. In 2006-2008 there was a low tide period when very few flights took place. It had financial and other reasons. Now they have restored the pilots' training cycle with their military reform and the number of flights has increased,» Tarien said and added that there is no reason connecting flights near the Estonian border to the Ukraine crisis.

According to Tarien approaching an air border is rather a breach of good practice. He added that it could be done differently and Russian military planes could always turn on their transponders and communicate with air traffic controllers since not turning on a plane's transponder usually makes the plane invisible to civil air traffic controllers which poses a threat to civilian aircraft. But in Estonia the military shares information from its military radars with the air navigation service so that it can redirect civilian aircraft if necessary, he said.