Perhaps the aircraft has a special 'Holeski' where they put a camera in to record what's what and what's not ? Unlikely, but you never know.
Brings back memories of Aeroflot flights into Heathrow prematurely descending before overflying East Anglia at inexplicably low altitudes ...
Did that happen often ? If so, what were the consequences of descending to lower altitudes without ATC clearance ?
I remember back in the 70's/80's at Frankfurt, the occurrence of Soviet/Eastern European aircraft requesting landing clearance on the runway next to the USAF base was a weekly thing. Apparently these aircraft DID have cameras/sensors on-board to gather intelligence on the happenings at Rhein-Main AFB. Of particular interest were the matte black C-130's that flew COMINT missions along the Berlin Corridors.
I wonder if PanAm aircraft that flew to the then USSR?China etc had capabilities to gather intel other than the crew seeing things out of the windows ?