Another Russian military plane intrudes into Estonian airspace

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The Estonian Foreign Ministry on Friday sent a note of protest to the Russian embassy in Tallinn after another Russian military plane intruded into Estonian airspace on Thursday.

An Antonov An-72 aircraft of the Russian armed forces entered the Estonian airspace without permission near Vaindloo island at 12:45 p.m. Thursday, military spokespeople in Tallinn said.

The plane spent less than a minute in Estonian airspace. Its transponder was on and it had filed a flight plan according to which it was to fly in international airspace. The plane had radio contact with Estonian Air Navigation Services.

The airspace violation was recorded by the air operations center at Amari in northwestern Estonia.

A representative of the Foreign Ministry handed a note of protest to the deputy head of the Russian mission on Friday.

This was the second incident recorded in 2015. The previous airspace violation took place on June 22 also near the island of Vaindloo.

Last year Russian military planes intruded into the airspace of Estonia on eight occasions and most of the incidents took place near the island of Vaindloo.

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