Russian naval air maneuvers pose risk, pilots group warns

Published Friday, December 21, 2007

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Air operations by a Russian naval task force sailing from the North Atlantic to the Mediterranean represent a potential threat to the safety of civilian flights in the area, an international pilots’ group warned today.

The squadron consisting of the carrier Admiral Kuznetsov and two Udaloy-class destroyers represents the most ambitious Russian naval deployment since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. During its three-month tour, it is due to be joined in the Mediterranean by units of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

When it sailed across the North Sea last week, the Kuznetsov conducted air operations close to Norway’s Gullfaks offshore oil field "without communication with any air traffic or other agency," said a statement issued by The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations to its members.

It warned civilian pilots that similar operations below 10,000 feet could occur anywhere along the fleet’s route "without prior notification." They could result in communications loss due to interference from military transmissions, the group said.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Oslo said Norway notified Moscow about the potential threat to civilian helicopters serving the offshore oil platforms. The Russians replied they would curtail the flights - all of which were over international waters - and the task force moved away from the oilfields, ministry spokesman Bjorn Svenungsen said.