The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) said that on Friday morning, NATO aircraft CL-600 flew near the route of a flight carrying 142 passengers from Tel Aviv to Moscow operated by Russian airline Aeroflot. Aeroflot's plane had to descend 500m to keep a safe distance.

Another plane flying from the Russian resort city of Sochi to North Macedonian capital Skopje also had to divert from its route to avoid colliding with the NATO spy plane.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the plane was under the US control, adding that the actions of the US Air Force often create a threat to civil aviation.