US vows to protest 'unsafe and unprofessional' Russian intercept of reconnaissance plane

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/13/us-vows-to-protest-unsafe-and-unprofessional-russian-intercept-reconnaissance/?intcmp=latestnews

The U.S. has said it will protest what it called the "unsafe and unprofessional" intercept of an American reconnaissance plane by Russian fighter jet over the Baltic Sea last week.

Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said Sunday said the U.S. was filing a complaint to Russia after the April 7 incident. Russian officials have denied their pilot did anything wrong, according to several news reports.

According to the Pentagon, the U.S. RC-135U plane was flying in international airspace north of Poland. U.S. officials say a Russian SU-27 fighter intercepted the U.S. aircraft at a high rate of speed from the rear, and then proceeded to conduct two more passes using "unsafe and unprofessional maneuvers" in close proximity. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Russian fighter may have come as close as 20 feet to the U.S. plane, though data from the incident is still being examined.

"Unprofessional air intercepts have the potential to cause harm to all aircrews involved. More importantly, the careless actions of a single pilot have the potential to escalate tensions between countries," Wright said.