Over the Baltic Sea off the coast of Latvia on Saturday, the German Air Force was deployed in international airspace along with their Swedish NATO colleagues because of Russian fighter jets that could not be identified at first, writes Bild.
Two German Eurofighter jets and two Swedish jets took off as a precaution to establish contact with the pilots as the planes headed for the NATO country of Latvia, an air force spokesman told AFP news agency.
The Russian planes were apparently traveling in connection with an exercise with Russian warships. The transponders were turned off and the pilots did not respond to radio inquiries, the spokesman said.
Furthermore, the plane's flight plan was not announced in advance, as is usually the case in the busy Baltic Sea region.