Ukrainian Jet Fighter Pilot Flees to Romania

What are the possible implications here?

RT:

Romania scrambled two F-16 Fighting Falcon jets on Thursday morning to intercept a foreign military aircraft, the country’s defense ministry has said. The intercepted target was identified as a Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 air superiority fighter jet. It was directed to land at a military base near the city of Bacau in eastern Romania, the statement said.

The ministry said the pilot of the Ukrainian jet surrendered himself to the Romanian authorities. Bucharest is assessing the legal ramifications of the incident. The defense ministry said it would provide further details about the situation later.

The news comes amid a Russian military operation in Ukraine, which Russia launched on Thursday morning. Moscow identified Ukrainian military airfields and aircraft on the ground as primary targets for its air strikes.

Romania, a NATO member, said it had taken all the necessary precautions and was monitoring the events unfolding in the neighboring nation.

The only thing I can think of is that the pilot was like “I’m getting the heck out of here” and fled the scene before he got shot down.

There is probably no place left to land a jet in the Ukraine. All of the airports have already been taken out at time of writing, as far as I’m able to tell.

So this pilot was basically definitely just getting the heck out.

This is a good omen.

NOTE: Most of the updates on this war are in the MEGA POST LIVE WAR THREAD

But I’ve got to fill up the rest of this news website somehow today, while managing watching all these streams and reading the live threads, and this seemed outside of the main narrative enough to be its own post.

But most of the stuff is going to be in that main post. Just keep reloading that for updates. I’m on it.