Venezuela accused the US of another airspace violation, just a week after in a similar incident, the US blamed Venezuela’s Su-30 for ‘aggressively’ shadowing its spy plane over the Caribbean.
According to Venezuela, a Lockheed EP-3 surveillance aircraft violated Venezuelan airspace near the coastal city of Maiquetía at around 10:58am local time on July 27.
Operational Strategic Command of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (CEOFANB) said that the spy plane reportedly circled the area for more than three hours. 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
On July 21, the U.S. Southern Command released a statement claiming that the EP-3 Aries II was approached in an “unprofessional manner” by a Venezuelan SU-30 Flanker-C fighter aircraft in “approved international airspace” on July 19.
