Due to the fighter raised on command, it was necessary to adjust the movement of 20 civil aviation aircraft heading to the capital's Vnukovo airport.
The first incident occurred on Friday, June 24, at about 8 pm. Radars identified that a strange object is moving at an altitude of 9000 meters at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour in the airspace where passenger planes fly to Moscow, which does not respond to signals.
Then, on command from the military airfield Hotilovo in the Tver region, a combat Su-27 was instantly lifted. As soon as the target was determined, the so-called "Carpet" signal was announced, in which all aircraft within the fighter's reach, make an immediate landing or withdraw from the zone. The calculation was that the intruder would also make an immediate landing. Only the object did not react in any way, but its location had already been determined, and the fighter moved towards the Smolensk region.
Only half an hour later it became clear that the object, resembling a ball in shape, did not pose a threat. Meanwhile, about 20 liners literally hung in the air because of the announced signal. Some were not given permission to take off, others could not land. That evening, just over Vnukovo, a queue of 17 boards formed.
The second incident with an unidentified object occurred the next day, but already in the sky over Voronezh. And again he looked so suspicious that a MiG-29 fighter was raised from a military airfield in Kursk.