RUSSIA SPY JET FLIES OVER HUB
Herald photog snaps pic of foreign plane
Herald photographer Mark Garfinkel caused a buzz yesterday when he snapped an exclusive photo of an unarmed Russian surveillance jet flying over Boston. Garfinkel, a seasoned airplane watcher, was on Twitter when he noticed Flightradar24, a global, real-time, flight-tracking service, inviting people to see the progress of a Russian flight. “I saw radar tracking it from Dayton, Ohio, to Newburgh, N.Y.,” he said. “I thought: That’s interesting; maybe it’ll fly over Boston.” The next time Garfinkel checked, the jet had dropped from 18,000 feet to 4,000 feet over Newport, R.I., and then flew north over Brockton. So he grabbed his camera with an 1140 mm lense and headed down D Street to East First Street in South Boston.
“I looked up to my left,” Garfinkel said, “and, sure enough, there it was. It looked like it was flying over the John F. Kennedy Library.”
At the time, the aircraft was flying at a mere 3,600 feet, according to Flightradar24.
“I could have shot it with my cellphone, and it might have come out all right, it was flying so low,” he said.
Garfinkel confirmed that it was a Russian aircraft by comparing the tail number, which had the letters RF, for Russian Federation, with photos of other Russian surveillance aircraft. When he enlarged the photo, he also could see Russian letters over
the he said. “It was kind of cool seeing it over Boston,” said Garfinkel, whose photo was picked up by numerous local TV stations. “I’ve shot many, many flights over the years, but this was definitely unique.”
On Wednesday, an unarmed Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 flew at about 3,700 feet over downtown Washington, D.C., and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where Air Force One is based, according to Flightradar24. The flights are allowed under the 2002 Treaty on Open Skies, which allows 34 signatory nations, including the U.S. and Russia, to make observation flights to help verify compliance with arms control agreements. fuselage,