Russia did it again on Friday. That is almost cause another aviation disaster like what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 by flying a military intelligence jet over the Baltic Sea with its transponder switched off.

The transponder identifies a plane's position. Flying a jet with the transponder "off" is "serious, inappropriate and downright dangerous," according to Peter Hultqvist, defense minister of Sweden.

Like Us on Facebook

He added that the Friday near-miss, were it not for the advice by air traffic controller for flight SK1755, a passenger plane that left Copenhagen Airport, to change course and avert a collision, was not the first time it happened. According to a Swedish TV report, in March, another Russian military jet was just 100 meters close to an SAS passenger aircraft while flying over the Baltic Sea, Financial Times reports.

In fact, NATO considers Russia's similar incursions into Swedish, Finnish and Estonian airspace in 2014 as "the most serious incursion into the military alliance's airspace since the end of the cold war."

The frequency of Russian planes flying close to Latvia's borders have increased substantially this year, noted former Latvian Defense and Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks, who warns, "There is such an intensity that I'm just afraid that if it continues we will come close to a second event like what happened in Ukraine."

While civilian planes could not detect jets with the transponders switched off, Swedish and Danish military spotted it on the radar and advised the passenger jet to change course

However, Russia denies its jets were on the brink of colliding with the SK jet bound for Poznan in Poland. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Major Igor Konashenko said, quoted by Daily Times, "A flight was carried out in strict accordance with international rules on air space and did not violate the borders of other countries and was at a safe distance from the flight paths of civilian planes."

TagsRussia, military jet, plane collision, MH717