The path of the American drone that crashed in the Black Sea after an encounter with Russian planes

According to the drone’s flight path, it flew from southern Italy, over southern Greece, Bulgaria, the Black Sea. The aircraft headed for international waters south of the Crimean Peninsula, where, after a period of patrolling, it was intercepted by the two Russian aircraft, The Aviationist and FlightRadar 24 report.

The United States has MQ-9 drones at bases in Sigonella (Italy), Miroslawiec AB (Poland), Turzii Plain (Romania) and recently Larissa (Greece). Typically, such drones perform missions over the Black Sea, accompanied by RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance aircraft.

The Pentagon reported that Russian jets flew close to this MQ-9 for about 30-40 minutes before “colliding” with the drone, throwing it off balance and forcing the US to shoot it down in international waters.

The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that the drone also had “disabled transponders, violating the limits of the zone of temporary regime of use of airspace established for the purpose of a special military operation, communicated to all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international norms.”