Russia's Defense Ministry calls Iceland's statements on aircraft incident a figment of the imagination

Russian Defense Ministry has denied information that the Russian bombers came dangerously close to an Icelandic civil airliner over the waters of the Norwegian Sea.

"[It] is nothing more than a figment of their imagination," said Defense Ministry representative Major-General Igor Konashenkov, adding that Russian planes were patrolling the north-eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean on September 22, the day when the incident supposedly occurred.

Information about the fact that Russian bombers had flown by a passenger plane appeared on September 26. The Russian planes had been seen by controllers and then by the pilot of a civil airliner.

On September 22, the United Kingdom reported that it flew out its fighter plains to intercept Russian Tupolev Tu-160 bombers. Iceland, however, maintained that it was not Tupolev Tu-160 planes that flew by its civil airliner, but Tupolev Tu-22M planes with turned off acquisition systems.