INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Security guards at an oil refinery in the republic of Bashkortostan opened fire on a civilian airplane Wednesday night after misinterpreting
it for a Ukrainian drone, local media reported Thursday.The Antonov An-2, a single-engine biplane more commonly referred to as a Kukuruznik,
was carrying out an aerial photography objective in between the local capital Ufa and the industrial city of Salavat
2 pilots and a photographer were on board the aircraft.Despite having prior flight clearance and operating with navigation lights, the
planecame under fire while flying at an elevation of around 300 meters (980 feet) near an oil refinery in Salavat, according to the business
paper Kommersant.The event activated air raid alerts in Salavat, where emergency situation hotlines were flooded with calls reporting what
homeowners thought to be an unknown drone overhead, said Radik Muratov, head of Salavats Civil Services and Emergency Situations
Department.It was in fact a prepared flight by an AkRusavia business airplane, which landed safely at Ufa Airport, Muratov was estimated as
saying by the state-run Bashinform news firm
He did not talk about the reported gunfire.The aircrafts pilots, discovering no fuel leakage, returned to Ufa after alerting flight
dispatchers of the incident
The local branch of Russias air transport authority Rosaviatsiya introduced an investigation, according to Kommersant.In May, the Gazprom
Neftekhim Salavat oil refinery was targeted in the first-ever drone attack in Bashkortostan, a region located about 1,200 kilometers (745
miles) from the Ukrainian border.
