The identified planes include two military transport planes Antonov-type AN-12, AN-26 and one AN-72, as well as two Ilyushin IL-76 strategic airlifters.
As usual, the Russian aircraft operated without notifying of their presence and headings, however remained within neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea. This is the second day in a row now of multiple aircraft interceptions within a single day's time, as Sunday a similar cluster of sightings was reported on the NBS's Twitter feed.
Baltic Air Policing QRA jets on 8 DEC scrambled to intercept RU Armed Forces 1x An-72, 2x Il-76, 2x An-12, 2x An-26 over the Baltic Sea.
— NBS (@Latvijas_armija) December 8, 2014
Later the NBS supplemented the list in Latvian, mentioning another mid-day scramble to intercept un unprecedented number of Russian military aircraft: four attack aircraft SU-27, four SU-24, four SU-34, two MiG-31 interceptor jets, one TU-22 supersonic bomber, one more AN-26 transport plane and four TU-95 strategic bombers.
Dienas vidū vēl arī - 4x Su-27, 4x Su-24, 4x Su-34, 2x MiG-31, 1x Tu-22, 1x An-12, 1x An-26, 4x Tu-95
— NBS (@Latvijas_armija) December 8, 2014
This is an as-yet unprecedented cluster of planes in the neutral skies near Latvian airspace, totaling 28 separate craft altogether in just one day.
