AF plane almost hit by a Russian Bomber..?
 

Sounds interesting...
Russischer Jagdbomber kommt extrem nah: Air-France-Maschine entgeht knapp Kollision - n-tv.de
Any other info??

Moscow times says Tu-95
 

The details seem similar enough to likely be the same incident, but this Moscow Times description specifies the bomber as Tu-95, not Tu-22M3.

French TV carried the same report yesterday, have not seen anything more official.

Official position is on the RosAviatsia website (FAA analogue in Russia).

They said that there was enough separation between those two planes -- 300 m was the vertical separation, whereas horizontal was 1km.

http://www.favt.ru/favt_new/?q=novos...ti/novost/3859

The TU-22 is a very big aircraft, wingspan 77 ft, but to the non-cognoscenti similar in shape to something like a F-111 with a 32 ft wingspan. So it would appear as if it was a LOT closer. In the early days of the B747 there were similar repeated claims of NMAC by pilots of other aircraft who did not realize how big 747s were.

It was only 100m separation according to the German report (300 being the required minimum) and the Air France crew reported hearing the engines of the Tup.

I think the separation was probably 300m with the crew thinking they were looking at a smaller quieter aircraft much closer.


Many years ago, in North Wales low flying area (go to youtube and search on Mach Loop) which was even more well used than it is now, Valley used to operate Gnats and Hunters. The locals were used to seeing these aircraft in the Snowdonia valleys and largely ignored them. A detachment of F-5s did a couple of weeks of low flying from Valley and there was a storm of low flying complaints with people misidenting the F-5s at correct height as very low Gnats. They were not that good at aircraft recognition but thought they could judge height.

You can hear the engines of a TU-22 from 3km away, 300 meters is no problem!:}

Tu-22 and Tu-22M3 are completely very aircraft, FYI.

The TU22 and TU22M are only loosely related but are of very similar size.

This photo from wikipedia of a Phantom and two TU22s reinforces the point that they might easily be mistaken for a much closer, smaller aircraft of similar shape:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-22s_1977.jpeg

This one is big.... those are far away..

and you can hear a TU-95 50 knms away.................

Many years ago - an aircraft under radar control with one of our sectors reported an 'air miss' with an Argosy. The controller said "I thought you said you were IMC?" to which the response was "I didn't see it, I recognized the engine noise"

The Counter Rotating Props on the TU-95 do make a very unique, loud, low frequency rumble. Can easily be heard, and felt at even 300m.

Given todays world I'd wager the old Badger was sending France a message at 100m. Jusy MO. ;)

Badger = two-syllable Nato reporting name starting with B = jet bomber

Bear = one-syllable Nato reporting name starting with B = (turbo-)prop bomber

Good luck spotting a Badger flying anywhere outside of China.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about because the original report cites it as a TU-22M3 (Backfire). :confused:
Isn't anything straight forward these days? :ugh:

Not when it comes to journalists who don't check facts and work on the principle of "any photo will do as long as it looks good" :O

Except when this thread was first posted, since I can't read Russian I googled the title and came up with more than a few articles in English, most dated before the Russian one at the top of the page.

All of which clearly said TU-95 Bomber and a couple said they could hear the engines.


Even this link posted in the 3rd post on this thread is dated 11th April,
3 days before the link in the OP post.

??????????

French media said that the AF pilots reported they had heard "the noise of the propellers" of the russian aircraft. For what it's worth...

Yes, I read that when I first googled the English versions but can't find it now.