Iran Press/ America: The North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), which detected the group comprised of Russian long-range bombers and fighter escorts as it approached Alaska, painted the incident as a normal occurrence that did not pose any threat.
NORAD also dismissed the Russian flight as unrelated to the string of suspected balloons shot down in the skies over North America, even as the search for wreckage from those objects continued in central Yukon and Lake Huron on Tuesday.
Air-traffic watchers were first alerted to another potential incident late Monday when they noticed a Canadian Armed Forces refueling aircraft heading northwest from Cold Lake, Alta., using a call sign associated with airborne intercepts.
In a statement released hours later, NORAD revealed that it had intercepted a group of Russian aircraft comprised of Tu-95 long-range bombers and Su-35 fighter aircraft as they approached Alaskan airspace.
“Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said. “This Russian activity is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative.”
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