Air Force Hornet fighters were unable to scramble in time when Russian aircraft twice breached Finnish airspace last week, the Finnish daily Savon Sanomat claimed on Saturday.
Finland’s Hornets were not ready to make an inspection flight until four hours after the Russian aircraft first strayed 30 kilometres into Finland’s airspace on May 20th, the paper said.
According to the paper, the delay was caused by the jets having made a series of training flights the week before the incursion took place. As a result of the overtime incurred during the exercises, capacity for observation patrols was momentarily reduced, the paper claimed.
A Russian plane was reportedly prevented from making a third airspace violation once the Hornet fighters were in the air and patrolling the area.
The Defence Ministry and the Air Force have neither denied nor commented on the allegations.
President: "Insignificant" incident
Speaking on Yle’s morning politics show Ykkösaamu on Saturday, Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö admitted that defence resources are currently tight, but played down the significance of the incursion.
“The planes weren’t four hours late, they responded four hours after something that was insignificant happened,” the president said.
Niinistö repeated earlier claims by Finland’s defence chief that the narrowness of the air corridor between Kaliningrad and St Petersburg, through which the aircraft were flying, makes it highly likely that the Russian plane strayed into Finnish airspace accidentally.
