Russian pilot tried to shoot down an RAF surveillance aircraft after believing he had permission to fire, it has been claimed.

The pilot fired two missiles, the primary of which missed fairly than malfunctioned as claimed on the time, the BBC has reported.

Russia had stated the incident final September when missiles had been fired on the RAF aircraft - with a crew of as much as 30 - was attributable to a “technical malfunction”.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) publicly accepted the Russian clarification.

But now three senior Western defence sources with information of the incident have informed the BBC that Russian communications intercepted by the RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint plane give a unique account.

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The RAF plane was flying a surveillance mission over the Black Sea in worldwide airspace on September29 final yr when it encountered two Russian SU-27 fighter jets.

The intercepted communications present that one of many Russian pilots thought he had been given permission to focus on the British plane, following an ambiguous command from a Russian floor station, the defence sources informed the BBC.

The Russian pilot launched an air-to-air missile, which efficiently launched however didn't lock on to its goal that means it was a miss, not a malfunction, the BBC has been informed.

The second Russian pilot didn't suppose he had permission, the sources stated. He remonstrated and swore at his wingman when he fired the primary missile, the BBC reported.

Another missile was hearth by the primary pilot. The second missile merely fell from the wing - suggesting the weapon both malfunctioned or that the launch was aborted, the BBC was informed.

In a press release to MPs on October 20, then Defence Secretary Ben Wallace referred to as it a “potentially dangerous engagement”.

But he accepted the Russian clarification, saying: “We do not consider this incident to constitute a deliberate escalation on the part of the Russians, and our analysis concurs that it was due to a malfunction.”

A secret intelligence leak additionally revealed that the US army’s model of occasions matches what the defence sources informed the BBC.

In doc printed on-line by US airman Jack Teixera, the identical incident was described as “a near shoot-down”.

“The incident was far more serious than originally portrayed and could have amounted to an act of war,” the New York Times reported.

According to 2 US defence officers, the newspaper stated, the Russian pilot had misinterpreted an order from the bottom.

In response to the leaked report of a “near shoot-down” the UK MoD issued one other assertion claimed a “significant proportion of the content of these reports [from the documents] is untrue, manipulated or both”.

The Ministry of Defence has been contacted for remark following the BBC report on Thursday.