Russian Spy Plane Photographed Over Britain By Stunned Homeowner — What Was Going On?
A homeowner in England Friday was stunned to look up, as he was tending his garden, to see a Russian spy plane flying directly over his house. So Steve Bradley, 41, an amateur photographer, grabbed his camera and snapped some clear shots of the military aircraft flying over Britain — just a few miles from the top secret Menwith Hill electronic surveillance base.
And if there was any doubt that the propeller-powered aircraft pictured in Bradley’s shots was indeed a Russian spy plane, Britain’s Ministry of Defense confirmed the fact. The Antonov An-30 military surveillance craft, known in Western military circles as the “Clank,” was definitely a Russian Federation Air Force plane and was potentially equipped with five high-resolution surveillance cameras.
“I just saw it flying pretty low and wondered, ‘Should that really be here?,'” the 41-year-old Bradley told The Daily Mirror newspaper. “My wife was in the kitchen and I just grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. I was dumbfounded.”
“Afterwards I looked up the number on the underside of the plane and that confirmed it was a military jet. I suppose some Russian planes must be allowed here but I imagine it’s pretty rare.”
His suspicion was correct. Amazingly, the Russian spy plane was indeed there with the express permission of the British government. Under a 2002 treaty known as “Open Skies,” Russia is permitted to fly spy missions, under certain restricted conditions, over the United Kingdom and the Royal Air Force may do the same, sending British spy planes into Russian skies.
Incredible as it seems, the same treaty also applies to the United States. As The Inquisitr reported, last December the Russians sent spy planes over U.S. military bases under the provisions of the Open Skies treaty.
The Menwith Hill base in northern England is itself a U.S. base, run mainly by the National Security Agency.
Two members of the the British Parliament, Andrew Stephenson and Nigel Evans, who represent the East Lancashire region where the Russian spy plane was spotted, now say they want the Open Skies treaty to come up for a review by the government, especially in light of increased tensions with Russia.
The sighting of the Russian spy plane comes less than a week after RAF jets intercepted another Russian spy plane flying too close for comfort to British air space — and that plane was not authorized to be there.
[Top Image: Gartenfreuden (Wolfgang)/Wikimedia Commons]
