Rather than Russian civilians I thought they were Russian military personnel which, despite what our resident troll denies, Putin has already admitted to excusing that they are Russian military personnel taking their vacations in eastern Ukraine & Crimea.
"Irish air traffic controllers diverted commercial airliners in mid flight to avoid possible collisions with two Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers flying across civilian routes last month with their transponders switched off, the Irish Examiner reported.
The dangerous maneuvers are the latest in a streak of provocative Russian bomber flights along the sovereign airspace of Western European nations.
According to the Irish Examiner, the Tu-95 'Bear' long-range strategic bombers weaved through major civilian air routes on Feb. 18 about 40 kilometers off the Irish coast, crossing flight lanes used by incoming flights from North America.
The bombers cloaked their presence by switching off their transponders, which broadcast to air traffic controllers an aircraft's type, altitude, location and other information."
Regardless of air traffic control keeping aircraft from bumping in to each other modern day airliners are equipped with TCAS, a "Traffic Collision Avoidance System" that alerts the flight crew when another aircraft is getting too close for comfort.
Just read a theory, besides the Russians stealing it, that Aliens abducted MH370 ... Look, that transponder was switched off at the precise moment that the aircraft was on handover from one air traffic control unit to another and that is just too much of a coincidence, MH370 was stolen and more than likely by one or both of the flight crew.
It had slipped my mind ... TCAS works on any offending aircraft with a working transponder :) ... And they call this an advancement in technology? ... Let's go back to detecting chunks of metal in the sky ... Please!
A British pilot, who believes the plane performed a final "fly-past" of Penang island before intentionally landing in the sea, suggests the search team might be looking in the wrong place.
Also a Malaysian woman claims to have seen missing MH370 in the water near Andaman Islands on day it disappeared.so convinced about what she saw at 2.30pm on March 8, several hours after MH370 vanished, that she filed an official report with police that very day - a full five days before the search for the plane was expanded to the area around the Andaman Islands.
Well apparently "Malaysian Airlines" bit(s) are now arriving on to the shores of Western Australia ... Of course could be a prank so will need a few more bits washed up before they convince me.