Eurofighter fires missile over Estonia by mistake
A Spanish Nato fighter jet has accidentally fired a missile over Estonia. The Estonian armed forces reported that the Eurofighter unintentionally fired the projectile containing up to ten kilogrammes of explosives near the city of Otepää in southern Estonia. It is currently being searched for. Estonia's media find the incident unnerving.
Better not let missiles go astray in Russia
For Postimees the incident is anything but trivial:
“We are a so-called frontline state, and any news to do with the military causes unease. ... Unfortunately such accidents can't be completely ruled out, they are a regular occurrence with the armed forces. Nonetheless, Estonia and the other Baltic states, together with the Nato headquarters and the allies, must ensure that the risk of mistakes is kept as low as possible. The Baltic states are so small geographically, and if missiles 'go astray' in the back yard of their neighbour to the east, things could end badly. What harm would this then do to relations with Russia?”
More flight training needed, not less
Reducing Nato training flights in the Baltic would be the wrong way to react to the incident, warns Eesti Päevaleht:
“The reasons for accidents are always different in detail, in general, however, one can say that the most frequent causes are insufficient preparation of personnel (for example too few flight hours), ageing aircraft, maintenance mistakes or cutbacks. In other words: to avoid such incidents we shouldn't cancel training flights but schedule more of them. Hopefully experts will soon determine what exactly caused the incident on Tuesday - whether it was due to human or technical error, or both. And to prevent confidence in Nato from sinking the results should not just be made available to the military, but should also be made public.”