--- title: Russian Warplane Flies in 'Unsafe' Manner Near U.S. Aircraft description: A Russian Su-27 jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft over the Baltic Sea on Friday, military officials said canonical: https://time.com/4313366/russian-warplane-us-aircraft-unsafe/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-30T13:45:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:09:56.310Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Russian Warplane Flies in 'Unsafe' Manner Near U.S. Aircraft og:description: The Russian plane "performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers," the U.S. said og:url: https://time.com/4313366/russian-warplane-us-aircraft-unsafe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Russian Warplane Flies in 'Unsafe' Manner Near U.S. Aircraft twitter:description: The Russian plane "performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers," the U.S. said twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Russian Warplane Flies in 'Unsafe' Manner Near U.S. Aircraft by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Apr 30, 2016 1:45 PM CUT by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Apr 30, 2016 1:45 PM CUT A Russian Su-27 jet flew dangerously close to a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft over the Baltic Sea on Friday, military officials said. The Russian plane flew within 25 feet of the RC-135’s fuselage, conducting a barrel roll over the U.S. plane. Lt. Col Michelle Baldanza, a Defense Department Spokesperson said that, “on April 29, 2016, a U.S. Air Force RC-135 aircraft flying a routine route in international airspace over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian SU-27 in an unsafe and unprofessional manner.” She added that the Russian plane “performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers” and that “the SU-27 intercepted the U.S. . . . [_Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-war-plane-flies-unsafe-manner-near-u-s-aircraft-n564996 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4313366/russian-warplane-us-aircraft-unsafe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4313366/russian-warplane-us-aircraft-unsafe/"},"headline":"Russian Warplane Flies in 'Unsafe' Manner Near U.S. Aircraft","datePublished":"2016-04-30T13:45:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:09:56.310Z","description":"The Russian plane \"performed erratic and aggressive maneuvers,\" the U.S. said","url":"https://time.com/4313366/russian-warplane-us-aircraft-unsafe/","keywords":["Military"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4313366/russian-warplane-us-aircraft-unsafe/","name":"Russian Warplane Flies in 'Unsafe' Manner Near U.S. Aircraft"}}]}] ```