PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: RUSSIAN AIRCRAFTS DID FLY OVER OUR AIRCRAFT CARRIER, BUT WE DID NOT FIND ANYTHING EXTRAORDINARY IN WHAT WAS GOING On - 1 December, 2000

The US authorities have, at last, reacted to the incident in the Sea of Japan where Russian aircrafts had twice broken through the air defence system of the force headed by the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. The aircrafts flied over the ship’s deck and even managed to take several photos on which a “panic could be seen reigning aboard the American ship,” as Anatoli Kornukov, Russian Navy, chief put it. Surely, the Americans tend to interpret the incident otherwise. According to Ken Bacon, the Defence Department spokesman, Russian aircrafts did fly near to the US aircraft-carrier force on October 17th and November 9th, but the “command did not find anything extraordinary in what was going on” and that it “did not think it had to react in any emergency way.” Mr. Bacon argues that US interceptors kept the Russian aircrafts well out. Anyhow, the Pentagon spokesman had to admit that in the first case (October 17th) the deck aviation aircrafts failed to take off on time since the ship was being topped up. The topup could have been terminated, though, ensuring an immediate takeoff, Mr. Bacon said.