REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
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OTTAWA (Reuters) By David Ljunggren - Canadian fighter planes scrambled to intercept an approaching Russian bomber less than 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Ottawa last week, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said on Friday.
The long-range Bear bomber did not enter Canada’s Arctic airspace but the two CF-18 fighters had to order the plane to “back off”, MacKay told a news conference.
He also told reporters that Russia had not warned Canada that the flight was coming, a statement that a Russian government source in Moscow dismissed as farcical.
The Russian government source said Canada had been informed about the flight before it took off.
[...]
Canada quickly denied receiving any advance notice.
[...]
“I’m not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit but it was a strong coincidence, which we met with the presence, as we always do, of F-18 fighter planes … and sent a strong signal that they should back off and stay out of our air space,” MacKay said.
Found by Mister Justin.
That ain’t cool…especially since it was in my backyard!
Ok,
Russia is going to do something STUPID with 1 bomber?
1 SLOW flying object, ISNT a problem, and Russia does there airborne practice flights all the time.
Dont blow this out of proportion..
Hey, looks like they are flying a Yemeni flag.
I think the more frightening scenario is that it could have not been a mission sanctioned by the Russian government, but rather a rouge pilot and a couple of crew members.
There are thousands of unaccounted for, cold-war era weapons sitting around in the former USSR.
Yeah right, they were gonna bomb the US President.
IDIOTS!
Wonder if this prop is likely to have icing issues ala Colgan 3407; especially since its flying through the Arctic…
It ain’t over till it’s over!
“Remember duck and cover”?
Now what do they want? We’ll surrender our congress without a fight.
Yawn.
Nice bear photo
The Russsian response – even in the independent press – was in the order of “I hope this farce sells a few more NA newspapers before they all go out of business.”
There is growing animosity over Arctic resources. That old bird has been refitted with air launched cruise missiles like out 52′s. Russia wants us to know they are back. In other words stay the Hell out of former Soviet states business. They now are using a version of our Monroe Doctrine. Bush and NATO went too far in Georgia. All those warheads demands a bit of respect.
#4 “…a rouge pilot and a couple of crew members. ”
gotta look out for them rouge pilots!! (I assume you meant rogue, not the french word for “red”?)
Yeah…I don’t think their intentions would be to bomb the president. Probably just saying…”remember us? yeah…we still have these weapons…don’t mess with us. Stay out of our business”
I wonder if the bomber carried any payload? You know, the like B-52′s that flew over the country with atom bombs in 2007.
Keep in mind the Ruskies planted a flag on the terra firma that is directly under the North Pole ice cap and claims that particular shelf that runs into Canada as more correctly being their own.
Add to that the USA driving ships through the North West Passage without permission claiming open waters as international and you can see why Canada feels it necessary to show the flag at every opportunity.
RBG
Molehill, meet mountain.
WHERE WAS SARAH PALIN!?!?!?
As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right next to, they are right next to our state.
Hmmmph. Too bad she can’t see Canada from her house…
hmmmm the story starts saying the bomber flew near Canada 24 hours before Obama visited…then near the end it suddenly changes to DURING the visit..is the NY Post writing this stuff?
Can you identify the bomber pictured? It’s one of Russia’s largest in the arsenal today. Here’s another photo.
[#9 already gave us it's nickname. - ed.]
TU-95
Spent enough time on carriers to know what it looks like. They would start trying to fly over us as soon we left Pearl Harbor for the far east.