TALLINN. March 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The main headquarters of the Estonian Defense Forces claimed Tuesday that the country's airspace was violated by a Russian plane.
A press release issued by the agency said an AN-26 Curl plane belonging to the Russian Air Force entered Estonian airspace near Vaindloo Island on March 19. It flew further into the airspace over Estonia for several minutes, five kilometers into the country, the staff said.
The plane was heading for Kaliningrad, and the transponder reporting onboard information to ground-based air monitoring systems was on, the headquarters said.
Meanwhile, the command of the Russian Air Force denied that its plane had violated Estonian airspace.
"There was absolutely no violation of Estonian airspace by a Russian military transport plane on March 19," spokesman for the Russian Air Force Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax on Tuesday.
"All planes belonging to the Russian Air Force fly to the Kaliningrad region strictly according to an established route, and if one of them had violated Estonian airspace on March 19, Tallinn would have reported this on that same day," Drobyshevsky said.
"The Air Force has information from objective monitoring concerning the flights of all military planes," he said.