A VENEZUELAN fighter aircraft recently made an “unsafe approach” to a U.S. Navy aircraft flying in international airspace, endangering the safety of the crew and jeopardizing “the aircraft’s mission,” the U.S. military said Sunday.

The incident, which occurred Friday, involved a “Russian-made” SU-30 Flanker Venezuelan fighter aircraft and a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries II aircraft conducting a “detection and monitoring” mission, U.S. Southern Command said in a statement. In a Sunday tweet, the Southern Command said the incident happened in international airspace over the Caribbean Sea.

“After reviewing video documentation, we have determined the Russian-made fighter aggressively shadowed the EP-3 at an unsafe distance in international airspace for a prolonged period of time, endangering the safety of the crew and jeopardizing the EP-3 mission,” the statement read.

Venezuela’s military weighed in Sunday, denouncing the U.S. aircraft for violating “security of air operations and international treaties.”

The military reported that Venezuelan strategic high command “proceeded to intercept the aircraft through two airplanes of the Bolivarian Air Force with the intention of applying the international protocols established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).”

“As the U.S. aircraft did not comply with such protocols, it was forced to vacate [the Venezuelan airspace].”

The incident comes several months after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro became engaged in a power struggle with opposition leader and self-declared interim president of Venezuela Juan Guaido, who the U.S. has thrown support behind.

According to Venezuela, more than 76 U.S. aircraft have attempted to enter Venezuelan airspace in 2019.

(SD-Agencies)