Swedish military plane flies twice in Finnish airspace

Plane model used in electronic surveillance and VIP transport

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Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs apologised to Finland on Tuesday for two violations of Finnish airspace by one of its military planes.
      The Finnish Defence Staff said that it had informed the Swedish government and Foreign Ministry about the violation. According to information received by the Finnish News Agency STT, the Swedish Foreign Ministry has regretted the incident and apologised to Finnish officials.
     
The plane was a Gulfstream EV G model surveillance aircraft. The Swedish Air Force uses the type both in electronic surveillance and VIP transport.
      According to Finnish Defence Forces head of communications, Ossi Kervinen, the plane, which took off from near Uppsala, was en route to South Sweden when it made a detour through the most southwesterly part of Finnish airspace. The plane was a maximum of 11 kilometres inside Finnish airspace. A couple of hours later, the same plane again entered Finnish airspace in the same location.
      Kervinen would not speculate as to the possible cause of the incident. He notes that the situation is extremely rare.
      "Sweden has not violated Finnish airspace during this millennium, and I cannot recall any previous incidents either", he says.
     
The most recent violation of Finnish airspace occurred in mid-September, when a Russian military aircraft flew 4.5 kilometres inside Finnish territory. In the spring of 2005 there was a series of incidents in which Russian military planes strayed into Finnish airspace while flying over the Gulf of Finland.
      Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) told STT in the evening that Finland takes the same attitude toward the Swedish violations of air space as it did with the incidents involving Russia. The same kind of request will be made for a clarification.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Radar records confirm Russian violation of Finnish airspace on Saturday (24.4.2006)
  Russia apologises for last Friday´s violation of Finnish airspace (10.8.2005)
  Russia officially denies - and tacitly admits - airspace violations (2.6.2005)
  Finland, Estonia, and Russia to discuss ways of avoiding air space violations (4.10.2007)
  Russia admits violation of Finnish airspace (21.9.2007)

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