US authorities have remotely wiped special software from the MQ-9 Reaper drone that crashed into the Black Sea on March 14, CNN reported, citing two US officials.
According to the TV channel’s interlocutors, the confidential data was deleted after the drone collided with the Russian Su-27 fighter jet, but before it crashed into the Black Sea. It is not specified what kind of data it is.
According to CNN’s sources, the reason the American drone went down was that two Russian fighter jets dropped fuel right in front of it, and then one of them collided with the drone, damaging the propeller.
The Kremlin, commenting on the American accusations of unjustified dumping of fuel on the drone and pollution of the Black Sea, advised the American side “not to fly where it should not”.
“Why should it be unecological? Maybe someone shouldn’t have flown where they shouldn’t, then everything would be ecological,” said the spokesman of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, in an interview with the “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” program, quoted by Interfax.
The US believes the collision between the Russian plane and the US drone was likely unintentional, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said. “It was probably the result of profound incompetence on the part of one or both of the Russian pilots,” he added.
According to the US version, the MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed after colliding with a Russian Su-27 fighter jet in neutral waters over the Black Sea on the morning of March 14. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the crash of the drone but did not say anything about the collision, it reported Dir.bg.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington does not want the MQ-9 Reaper drone to be acquired by anyone but the Americans. He said state authorities had “taken measures” to protect the drone. For his part, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that Russia will try to raise the debris from the bottom of the Black Sea.
The Ministers of Defense of Russia and the United States, Sergei Shoigu and Lloyd Austin, spoke by phone today after yesterday’s incident with the American drone that fell into the Black Sea and was hit by a Russian fighter jet, TASS and Reuters reported in the meantime, as quoted by BTA.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the conversation, which, according to the ministry, was initiated by the American side. “On March 15, 2023, at the initiative of the American side, a telephone conversation was held between the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Army General Sergei Shoigu and the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America Lloyd Austin,” the statement said.
