NEW YORK — Here's an intriguing nugget, given Turkey's recent decision to close its airspace to Israeli military planes: When Israel attacked a covert Syrian nuclear reactor on Sept. 6, 2007, its bombers overflew Turkey.
When a Chinese military surveillance plane overflew the islands two weeks ago, Japan scrambled fighter jets in response.
But the dispute between China and Japan in the East China Sea took another harrowing turn last week when a Chinese plane overflew the islands and Japan scrambled some fighter jets in response.
It landed on a ledge, which created a huge upward momentum, which then bounced off a ridge, overflew the Himex camp – another operator's – and then swept across a huge swath of base camp.
Sources say that drones also overflew sites including an Areva spent fuel reprocessing plant in Flamanville on the Cotentin peninsula on 27 October and nuclear research centres in Saclay, south of Paris, and Cadarache, in Bouche-du-Rhone.
By sticking to commercial routes, the flight may not have raised the suspicion of those manning primary (military) radars of the nations it overflew.
When President Clinton crisscrossed Africa on a six-country visit in March 1998, his plane overflew Nigeria in a pointed snub at the generals leading it.
