U.S. European Command has released video taken by the MQ-9 Reaper drone as a Russian Su-27 fighter jet attempts to spray the drone with jet fuel and collides with it.
The incident, which happened on Tuesday, ended after the jet hit the drone’s propeller sending it into the Black Sea.
The video was taken from a camera mounted on the underside of the drone. The footage shows two different passes taken by the jets to spray the drone with jet fuel, the second one shows the collision with the propeller at the rear of the drone.
Russian fighter jet struck US drone over the Black Sea
The collision knocks out communications with the drone and color bars are seen. Communications were down for about a minute, according to EUCOM.
In the video damage to a propeller blade can be seen.
Russia will work to retrieve the wreckage of the drone a top Russian official said Wednesday. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded Wednesday afternoon saying the drone likely broke up as it crashed into the Black Sea, and its debris was under thousands of feet of water.
