COSTELLO: A close call in the skies over the Black Sea. A Russian fighter jet coming within ten feet of an American reconnaissance jet as it flew over international waters last month. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is following the story for us. Good morning.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It happened on May 30th, but the information just now coming to light here at the Pentagon. What happened was a Russian fighter jet launched over the Black Sea and tried to intercept an American reconnaissance plane, an Air Force RC-135 flying in international waters. This was about 300 miles north of Turkey. We are told that this Russian fighter jet flew within ten feet of the American plane, very dangerous. The question now, of course, is why are the Russians doing it? The plane was fine, nobody was hurt. No evasive action was taken, but in the skies, of course, this is very, very dangerous airmanship. The U.S. says, you know, pure speculation, maybe it was pilot aggressiveness on the part of the Russians, maybe it was directly ordered by Moscow. They don't really know, but it's really interesting because it follows a very similar incident just a few weeks before that on April 7th off the coast of Lithuania, up in the Baltic in northern Europe. Again an American reconnaissance plane approached an unsafe -- in an unsafe practice very closely by another Russian plane. A lot of pickup in military air traffic in both these areas, the Black Sea and the Baltics. NATO allies, the U.S. flying a lot more out there sending a signal to the Russians in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine that NATO and the U.S. are out there defending Europe, defending Eastern Europe. So they're seeing the Russians respond a lot more but two incidents now very concerning to the Pentagon -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, parents get some help from Hollywood in finding a cure for their children's rare brain disease.
Russian Jet Comes within 10 Feet of U.S. Aircraft