MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. A NATO Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II reconnaissance and target acquisition aircraft is again flying over the Black Sea neutral waters, a source in the EU air traffic control services told TASS.

"The aircraft is navigating in the southern part of the sea from west to east and back without entering the airspace of any countries," the source said. He noted that the aircraft that took off from an airfield in Constanta, Romania, is flying outside the civil aircraft routes at an altitude of just over 10 km.

The source added that the plane is using one and the same route in the Black Sea area, as a rule, but on Saturday, July 18, the aircraft performed an unusually short flight over neutral waters in the western part of the Black Sea that lasted about 40 minutes.

In recent months, the Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II aircraft has been repeatedly spotted over the southern part of the Black Sea. In addition, a NATO RQ-4D Phoenix strategic reconnaissance drone controlled by the Italian Air Force and based at the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, has begun to appear in the area. The drone, as a rule, is following the same path as the reconnaissance aircraft. It was reported on Tuesday that during a flight over the Black Sea the drone had a communications system’s failure, however, it managed to land at the departure base, having circled for several hours over the Mediterranean Sea.