[REGNUM] Awarded Russian pilots spoke about how they stopped the violation of the borders by the American MQ-9 drone in the Black Sea in the zone of a special military operation. Video published by the Ministry of Defense.
According to Major Vasily Vavilov, the fighter pilots received the command to take off when they were on duty for air defense. Two crews flew out to intercept the drone, which was moving in order to violate the state border of the Russian Federation.
"After the departure, we approached this aircraft, identified it and performed maneuvers to force it to refuse to perform its task," Vavilov specified the details.
According to Major Sergei Popov , Russian pilots did not use weapons during the interception. They also did not come into contact with the drone.
As REGNUM reported, the incident occurred on the morning of March 14 over the Black Sea. The drone flew with transponders turned off, violating the borders of the temporary regime area. As a result of abrupt maneuvering, the MQ-9 went into uncontrolled flight, lost altitude and fell into the sea. On the same day, it was discovered at a depth of 850–900 meters, 60 km from Sevastopol. At the same time, the Russian fighters returned to the airfield without using their onboard weapons and without making contact with the drone.
On March 22, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu presented the Order of Courage to Su-27 pilots who flew to intercept an American drone.