American Drone Downed by Russian Plane Over Black Sea

Reports are still coming in...

Reports are still coming in, but the United States claims that an American Reaper Drone was struck by a Russian warplane over international waters in the Black Sea region. The Black Sea is south of Ukraine and Russian-Occupied Crimea.

According to the head of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa Command, United States Air Force General James B. Hecker:

“At approximately 7:03 AM (CET), one of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters. Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner. This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.”

Some news links to this developing story…

US drone crashes after encounter with Russian jet-BBC

Russian jet collides with US drone in international airspace over Black Sea, official says-Fox News

Russian fighter jet forces down US drone over Black Sea after intercept-CNN