MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) – A US surveillance plane carrying US and British military personnel took off from an airport in southern Siberia on Friday after being stranded there for two nights over poor weather conditions and unpaid fees.
The US plane, making a routine flight over Russia under the international Open Skies treaty, was forced down in Chita on Wednesday because of heavy fog.
Visibility later improved but the Boeing plane and its crew were not permitted to continue their flight because they hadn’t paid airport servicing fees, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
The aircraft with some 30 people on board, including military personnel from the UK and US, finally took off from the airport on Friday. The plane had originally been scheduled to fly to the neighboring Russian city of Ulan-Ude, but changed its course for an unspecified reason Friday, heading to Anchorage, Alaska, reports said.
“The foreigners paid the bills for the fuel and airport fees and flew back home,” local news site Chita.ru cited an airport employee as saying.
The Open Skies Treaty, which entered into force on January 1, 2002, allows each signatory a quota of unarmed aerial observation flights over the territories of the 34 member states, including Russia, to promote openness and transparency in military affairs.
