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Russian jet-U.S. drone collision: Moscow will try to retrieve drone wreckage in Black Sea after Pentagon blames Russia for crash
Moscow will work to retrieve the wreckage of an American drone that crashed into the Black Sea after Washington said a Russian fighter jet collided with it, a top official said Wednesday.
“I don’t know whether we’ll be able to retrieve it or not but it has to be done. And we will certainly work on it,” Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in televised remarks.
“I am hoping for success, of course.”
The head of Russia’s SVR intelligence service, Sergei Naryshkin, said the country has “technical” capabilities to retrieve the drone.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby has said the U.S. was trying to prevent the fallen drone from getting into the wrong hands.
“We’ve taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone — that particular aircraft,” Kirby told CNN.
But he also said the drone crashed into “very, very deep water.”
“We’re still assessing whether there can be any recovery effort mounted. There may not be,” Kirby said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for Moscow to operate its aircraft safely and professionally, saying the collision is part of a pattern of “risky” actions. And Moscow warned against “hostile” U.S. flights as tensions simmered between the two countries.
“This hazardous episode is a part of a pattern of aggressive, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace,” Austin said at the start of a meeting of countries supporting Ukraine’s fight against invading Russian forces.
“Make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” he added.
Though Russia has denied its Su-27 plane clipped the propeller of the unmanned drone, Kyiv said the incident over international waters was a Kremlin attempt to widen the Ukraine conflict.
The crash on Tuesday added fresh tensions between Moscow and Western allies.
“We assume that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media and stop flights near Russian borders,” Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said Wednesday.
“We consider any action with the use of U.S. weaponry as openly hostile,” he wrote on social media channel Telegram.
Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday it scrambled fighter jets following the detection of a U.S. drone over the Black Sea and denied causing the crash.
The Pentagon said its drone was on a routine mission when it was intercepted “in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” while Russia countered the aircraft was out of control and said its jets had no contact with it.
“Obviously, we refute the Russians’ denial,” Kirby said.
The incident happened 75 miles southwest of the Crimean Peninsula, a part of Ukraine seized by Russia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
For more than half an hour Tuesday morning, two Russian jets made a total of 19 passes on the drone, popping up in front of it to blast it with their jet exhaust and trying to drench it with their fuel.
One of the jets approached from the rear, and U.S. officials believe the pilot meant to come up in front of the drone so it would fly into the fuel cloud — but pulled up too soon and clipped the drone’s propeller, which is located in the back, Martin reports.
“Just bad piloting,” one official said, according to Martin.
Russian intercepts over the Black Sea are common, Kirby said in Washington, but this one “is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was, indeed reckless that it was.”
For Ukraine, however, the incident was evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to raise the stakes of the yearlong conflict in Ukraine and draw in Washington.
“The incident with the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV, provoked by russia in the Black Sea, is putin’s signal of readiness to expand the conflict zone with the involvement of other parties,” Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on Twitter.
“The purpose of this all-in tactic is to always be raising the stakes,” he added.
Isaac Brekken/Getty Images
NATO diplomats in Brussels confirmed the incident, but said they did not expect it to immediately escalate into a further confrontation.
A Western military source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said diplomatic channels between Russia and the United States could help limit any fallout.
“To my mind, diplomatic channels will mitigate this,” the source said.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to heightened fears of a direct confrontation between Moscow and the NATO alliance, which has been arming Kyiv to help it defend itself.
Reports of a missile strike in eastern Poland in November briefly caused alarm before Western military sources concluded it was a Ukrainian air defense missile, not a Russian one.
During a press conference Tuesday at the Pentagon, Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder wouldn’t say whether the drone was armed and referred to the unmanned aircraft as a MQ-9, but not a Reaper. The U.S. uses MQ-9 Reapers for both surveillance and strikes and has operated the drones in a variety of locations, including in the Middle East and Africa.
“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” said Air Force Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa.
“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash,” he said.
Ryder said the drone was “unflyable and uncontrollable so we brought it down,” adding that the collision also likely damaged the Russian aircraft, which he said was able to land following the incident.
Several U.S. Reapers have been lost in recent years, including to hostile fire.
One was shot down in 2019 over Yemen with a surface-to-air missile fired by Houthi rebels, U.S. Central Command said at the time.
Reapers can be armed with Hellfire missiles as well as laser-guided bombs and can fly for more than 1,100 miles at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet, according to the Air Force.
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Gun control is one of the most polarizing issues in American politics, and it’s been a topic of contention in the 2024 presidential election. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been at odds over guns — Trump has told voters Harris “wants to confiscate your guns,” a point Harris denies. She wants to see stronger gun control laws on the books but also says she’s a gun owner. Here are Trump’s and Harris’ stances and policy plans to address gun violence in America.
Kamala Harris’ stance on guns
- Harris says she favors the Second Amendment and said in the Sept. 10 debate with Trump that she owns a gun, a revelation she originally made when she ran for president in In 2019. “I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do — for personal safety,” she said at the time. “I was a career prosecutor.” She recently told 60 Minutes she owns a Glock and has fired it at a shooting range.
- Harris oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence and Prevention, which was created by the Biden administration in 2023 with an eye toward finding ways around congressional inaction on stronger gun control laws.
- The Biden administration in 2022 enacted the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in the wake of the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. It represents the most significant update to gun safety law in almost three decades, augmenting background checks for gun buyers under 21, providing billions for mental health services and closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to prevent convicted domestic abusers from purchasing a firearm for five years. It also clarified the definition of gun dealers. The law faces challenges from 26 GOP-led states that are suing to block it.
- Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also owns a gun and is an avid hunter. He even held an “A” rating from the NRA at one time, but his grade fell to an “F” in 2018, when he backed stricter gun laws in Minnesota following the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. On the campaign trail in October 2024, Walz went hunting with his own Beretta in an appeal to gun owners.
Kamala Harris’ policy plans on guns
- Harris oversees the White House Office of Gun Violence and Prevention, which was created by the Biden administration in 2023 in order to find a way around congressional inaction on stronger gun control laws.
- Her campaign website says if Harris is elected, she would “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”
- Though she says she is a Second Amendment advocate, Harris also favors stronger gun control measures. In a speech on Sept. 12, Harris promised to “pass an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and red flag laws.”
- While running for president in 2019, Harris vowed to take executive action on guns, saying in April 2019 that she would implement “near-universal” background checks, close loopholes to prevent those convicted of domestic violence from obtaining firearms and revoke licenses from gun manufacturers and dealers who break the law. In Oct. 2019 she said she supported a mandatory gun buyback program, but at the Sept. 10 debate, she told Trump, “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away, so stop with the continuous lying about this stuff.”
Donald Trump’s stance on guns
- Trump “believes that every American has a God-given right to protect themselves and their family and has proven through his actions that he will defend law-abiding gun owners,” his campaign said.
- The NRA endorsed Trump in May at its annual convention, and he has addressed the group several times, including in 2022, shortly after the Uvalde mass shooting.
- Shortly after taking office in 2017, Trump signed a bill that rolled back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun.
- During a White House listening session with students and families affected by the 2018 Parkland mass shooting, Trump suggested bonuses for teachers who are “adept at guns” and offered support for providing concealed carry permits for teachers or retired military personnel on campus.
- After the Las Vegas mass shooting in Oct. 2017, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms under the Trump administration banned bump stocks, devices that greatly increase the rate of fire of semi-automatic weapons. The ban was later struck down by the Supreme Court.
Donald Trump’s policy plans for guns
- Trump’s campaign said in a statement that he would “terminate every single one of the Harris-Biden’s attacks on law-abiding gun owners his first week in office and stand up for our constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms.”
- He has not spoken on the campaign trail about specific policy proposals on guns. At the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in February, Trump promised that “no one will lay a finger on your firearms” if he wins the election.
- Trump said in the same speech he “did nothing” to restrict guns while he was in the White House, although his administration enacted the 2017 bump stock ban. After the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, he called on Congress to pass bipartisan legislation to strengthen and improve the national instant criminal background check system. And after the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, Trump reiterated support for “red flag” laws and stronger background checks, although many Second Amendment activists fought the measure, and it was ultimately abandoned later that year.
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If you were looking for a cost-effective way to borrow a large sum of money in recent years, home equity provided the best option. Not only were interest rates lower on home equity loans and home equity lines (HELOCs) than they were on most popular alternatives, but both provided a way to access a six-figure sum that others often couldn’t provide. And now, with one interest rate cut already issued by the Federal Reserve in September and additional ones likely for when it meets again in November and December, both products are poised to be even cheaper for borrowers in the final weeks of 2024.
That noted, home equity borrowing comes with some inherent risks, and borrowers will need to be careful to only withdraw what they’re comfortable repaying or they could risk their homeownership in the process. Understanding this, as well as the dynamics of borrowing home equity in today’s changing rate climate, borrowers should know some important home equity loan dos and don’ts going into November. Below, we’ll break down four of them.
See what home equity loan rate you could secure here now.
Home equity loan dos and don’ts to know this November
Home equity loan borrowing has some timely benefits and disadvantages that can affect your approach. This November, borrowers should specifically consider the following steps:
Do: Choose a HELOC over a home equity loan
Sure, a HELOC has a slightly higher rate than a home equity loan does right now (8.69% versus the latter’s 8.36%). But if you lock in that home equity loan rate now and rates fall as expected, you’ll need to refinance (and pay to refinance) to secure that lower rate. HELOCs, meantime, will simply adjust on their own, lowering your monthly payments as long as interest rates continue to decline.
Explore your best HELOC options online now.
Don’t: Wait for rates to fall
For starters, if you wait for rates to fall, you’ll delay paying the expenses you need the financing for. And if it’s to consolidate high-rate debt, for example, that will come at a cost. But, just as importantly, waiting for rates to fall is a risky move. There’s no guarantee that they will fall or, if they do, by how much. Plus, home equity loan rates don’t move directly in tandem with the federal funds rate anyway. So even if rates were to be cut by 25 basis points, it’s unlikely that home equity loan rates will drop by the same amount.
Do: Shop for lenders
With rates on the decline, it’s more important than usual to shop around for lenders. While most will offer a rate in the approximate same range, every basis point helps. Some lenders, for example, may be more proactive in terms of pricing in presumed rate cuts while others may closely follow the Fed. You won’t know which approach each takes, however, until you shop around.
Don’t: Miss out on certain dates
As noted, some lenders will preemptively price in rate cuts before they’re formally issued. And this often takes place when data that could affect the Fed’s actions is released. So don’t miss out on certain dates in November, like November 7, when unemployment data for October is released. That’s also the date the Fed is set to conclude its next meeting. But keep an eye out for October inflation data, too, which could set the stage for the Fed’s actions in December (scheduled to be released on November 13).
The bottom line
If you’re looking for a way to access large sums of money in a cost-effective way, home equity borrowing can be the smart way to do so this November. Just be sure to take a strategic approach when you do. This means choosing a HELOC over a home equity loan, not waiting for rates to fall and shopping around for lenders to find one offering the best rates and terms. And be sure to monitor certain upcoming dates for opportunities to capitalize on the cooling rate climate.
Have more questions? Learn more about your current home equity loan options here.
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