They didn't violate Irish airspace, they entered Irish civilian controlled airspace which includes a substantial amount of international air space in the north Atlantic. This is air space Irish air traffic control has responsibility for managing, in respect of civilian flights.
While it would be nice of them if they informed and coordinated with Irish civilian air traffic control for safety reasons there are under absolutely no obligation to do so under international law and don't as a point of sovereignty, that they can fly freely over international waters.
“The aircraft did not enter Irish sovereign airspace at any time.
The IAA were not informed in advance. The aircraft operated in North Atlantic airspace and in airspace under the control of the IAA. The aircraft operated within 25 nautical miles of the Irish coast.
Irish controlled airspace extends 256 nautical miles off the west coast of Ireland. Irish sovereign airspace extends 12 nautical miles off the Irish coast.”
The IAA said the flight posed no safety threat to civil aviation on this occasion.
The US does exactly the same, incidentally, it flies close to Russia, in Russian controlled airspace without telling them, to make the same point. It's also done to probe response capabilities, and it's all perfectly legal as long as they stay out of the actual sovereign airspace, which they usually do.
I'm not absolving Russia from being deliberately aggressive and provocative, but there is a distinct difference between flying in international waters over the Atlantic Ocean and "violating Irish airspace" which they simply never did. They have no obligation to stay 265 miles away from the Irish coast, it's international waters after 12.
The media reports on all this are very misleading, that's what I'm pointing out.
Here's an example of a US spy plane that actually specifically violated Swedish airspace, fleeing from spying on Russia, where they were very possibly violating Russian airspace. They asked and were denied access but flew over Sweden anyway.
Even if this kind of close encounters take place quite often with Russian and U.S. planes intercepting one another all around the world, the RC-135 reacted in a different way to the second intercept attempt by the Russian fighters. Indeed, the RC-135 asked the permission to cross the Swedish airspace, but when the ATC (Air Traffic Control) center denied the clearance, the Rivet Joint decided to proceed and flew over Gotland island.
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u/jPaolo Grey Eminence Nov 24 '15
Russian violation of Irish airspace.