The IL-78 was the first plane sighted and headed off over the Baltic Sea this year on January 16 after an almost month long holiday-time break in military buzzings of the Baltic states prior to that.
Nevertheless, NATO jet pilots had gotten used to almost daily scramblings to intercept various Russian military aircraft straying too close to Latvian airspace on their way back and forth between the Russian mainland and its naval base enclave of Kaliningrad last year.
This marks the fourth scramble in the month since the buzzing activity restarted.
NATO Baltic Air Policing QRA ITA Typhoon jets on 30 JAN scrambled to intercept RU Armed Forces Il-78 over the Baltic Sea.
— NBS (@Latvijas_armija) January 30, 2015
