According to information from the Flightradar24 website, the same Russian plane that breached Finnish airspace at 6 pm returned to cross the flight border a second time shortly after 10 pm. The radar also indicated that the aircraft had flown near Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania in the meantime.
The Ministry of Defence has confirmed two violations of Finnish airspace, one at 3 pm and another at 6 pm. According to the Ministry, Finnish Hornet jet fighters carried out an inspection flight, resulting in the sonic boom indicating a break in the sound barrier that supposedly wasn’t audible until 10 pm.
The discrepancy with respect to the exact times has aroused suspicion that a third infraction had also occurred. Ministry of Defence Communications Director Max Arhippainen is only willing to confirm two incidents.
“We cannot release any more details for operational reasons. We reported all the airspace violations, which were two in number,” he said.
The reason Finland’s Hornet fighters took to the sky four hours after the airspace breach could well be that the same Russia plane returned to the outskirts of the Finnish airspace border at that time. On Wednesday evening, Arhippainen said that the Hornets did check something out.
Border Guard investigating two infringements
The Finnish Border Guard says it is investigating two incidents of airspace violations by planes of the Russian State. Several government agencies are now comparing their data on the matter.
The Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee received a report on the airspace violations on Wednesday. The first aeroplane travelled one kilometre into Finnish airspace, while the other violated the border by thirty kilometres.
The Foreign Ministry has demanded an explanation from Russia.
Soini: “Breaches extremely serious”
Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Timo Soini considers the Tuesday airspace violations a very grave concern. Soini says that although the breaches may have been accidental, the second violation in particular is extremely serious.
“It is clear that two instances of this nature within the space of one day haven’t occurred in some time,” Soini commented in a Radio 1 interview on Thursday.
Ahtisaari: “I hope there will be an apology”
Former President Martti Ahtisaari hopes to hear an apology from Russia for the airspace violation.
“When things like this happen, there should be a follow-up inquiry and notice that the violation has occurred. I hope there will be an apology,” he said.
“I wonder if things like this transpire simply because they have such poor pilots, or if they are testing their limits somehow,” the statesman continued.
