British spy plane was nearly shot down by Russia in September: leaked docs

A British surveillance plane was nearly shot down by a Russian fighter jet last year, according to information in a trove of apparent Pentagon documents leaked online in recent days.

The Washington Post reports that a leaked document refers to a “near shoot-down of UK RJ,” referring to a United Kingdom reconnaissance plane, that occurred on Sept. 29 of last year. 

The incident was described last year by UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace as Russia accidentally releasing a missile near the British aircraft due to a technical malfunction, according to a Reuters report. 

“We don’t consider this a deliberate escalation by the Russians, our analysis would concur it was a malfunction,” Wallace reportedly said at the time.

The Washington Post now reports the near-miss was more serious than initially described, especially because of the potential implications of a hypothetical Russian strike against a NATO member. 

Under Article 5 of NATO’s treaty, an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against the alliance as a whole.

Russia has shown little desire to expand the war beyond Ukraine’s borders, however a missile that fell in Poland caused a brief scare before the U.S. and NATO concluded it was a Ukrainian defensive weapon gone awry.

The Department of Defense said Sunday that it’s reviewing the leaked documents to assess their validity, and that the matter has also been referred to the Department of Justice for investigation.

The documents also reveal US assessment of the war in Ukraine and information gleaned from American spying on allies such as Israel and South Korea.

Israel reacted angrily to a document suggesting that leaders of its spy agency were involved in fomenting anti-government demonstrations last month, while South Korea’s presidential office said it would raise the leaks with Washington.