How real is the possibility of a collision with a Russian plane?

[Dahu]

This is on the BBC website-

Could the world return to the 1980s?

They say

Russian aircraft regularly fly straight towards Western European airspace, and are turned away at the last instant by Nato fighters.

There is a real possibility that one or other of these Russian pilots, their transponders switched off, and deaf to the guidance of civil aviation controllers, will smash into a civilian passenger aircraft.

If a Russian plane did this, how real is the “real possibility” that it might collide with a civilian plane? Should I avoid flying for a while?

[Isilder]

@Dahu

Should I avoid flying for a while?

They have been doing it for decades now, and you will probably have to wait decades to see an end to it …

How dangerously they fly depends on their own selves… do they have radar set to show civilian air craft ? Well of course a military plane has lots of equipment and is also the arena is being observed by support air craft and ground equipment…
But they do not know why an aircraft disappeared. Perhaps it landed, or perhaps they have lost track of it somehow… the computer decided not to show it, due to a glitch, for a few minutes ?

[JerrySTL]

A slight possibility that they could hit a civilian plane. An almost impossible possibility that it would hit an aircraft that you are flying on unless you fly daily in that area. Even then it’s next to zero.

[bump]

You’d think that civil air traffic control would track both the Russian planes and the civilian airliners and direct the airliners away from the Russians.

[Ranger_Jeff]

Soviet fighters used to harass US aircraft during the Berlin Airlift. It’s the Same Old Same Old.

[jtur88]

Years ago, still durng the Soviet era, I was told that all flight control communications all over the world are in English, except Aeroflot flights, who have their own flight controller at every airport, who communicates with the pilot in Russian. Even at airports that have only one Aeroflot flight per week. I had no reason to doubt the source of my information, and I have no idea whether that policy might still be in place.

[bob_2]

@jtur88

Years ago, still durng the Soviet era, I was told that all flight control communications all over the world are in English, except Aeroflot flights, who have their own flight controller at every airport, who communicates with the pilot in Russian. Even at airports that have only one Aeroflot flight per week. I had no reason to doubt the source of my information, and I have no idea whether that policy might still be in place.

I find it hard to imagine that many Western countries would now, or ever have allowed a Russian in their FTCs

[jtur88]

@bob_2

I find it hard to imagine that many Western countries would now, or ever have allowed a Russian in their FTCs

Aeroflot didn’t fly to many western countries.