Caracas has accused the US of another airspace violation, just a week after Washington, in a similar incident, blamed Venezuela for ‘unprofessionally’ approaching and ‘aggressively’ shadowing its spy plane over the Caribbean.
A Lockheed EP-3 surveillance aircraft violated the Venezuelan airspace near the coastal city of Maiquetía at around 10:58am local time Saturday, and circled the area for more than 3 hours, Operational Strategic Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (CEOFANB) said in a tweet, providing a diagram of the flight. The country’s air traffic control attempted to communicate with the intruder, but received no “effective response.”
#ALERTA| Hoy una vez más aviones espías EEUU ingresan indebidamente a FIR bajo control de nuestro País violando la seguridad aeronáutica y Tratados Internacionales. EEUU continúa en franca ofensa a nuestra Patria y al mundo. Respeten a este Pueblo, que junto a la FANB quiere Paz. pic.twitter.com/ja0rlMhSBR
— CEOFANB (@ceofanb) July 27, 2019
Just last week, a similar incident resulted in US crying foul over “unsafe” approach by an “aggressive” Venezuelan Su-30 fighter – and the media blaming Russia for its “irresponsible” support for Caracas. It is unclear if Venezuela scrambled any of its jets this time, and the US has yet to issue a comment over the incident.
The US maintains that all its aircraft operate strictly in international airspace, while Venezuela insists that American jets violated its skies on at least 78 occasions this year alone. The Venezuelan army denounced the latest incursion as a “frank offense” in breach of all international treaties.
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