Russian pilots and their U.S.-Canadian counterparts successfully completed a drill that practiced the hand-off of a "hijacked" airplane.
In their jetliners 34,000 feet over the Bering Strait, Canadian Major Gen. Andre Vien and Russian pilot Gen. Major Dmitry Gomenkov were focused on one end: to safely transport an aircraft back to its home country.
There were no thoughts about continuously strained U.S.-Russian relations, the Associated Press reported. This exercise was meant to ensure that Russia and NORAD corps could find, follow and move a hijacked jetliner over international waters.
As director of operations, Vien is responsible for NORAD, a joint defense command for the U.S. and Canada. He said that there was never a question whether the exercise, known as Vigilant Eagle, would be cancelled, even amid issues between Russia and America over the situation in Syria, along with the asylum of Edward Snowden.
That was for another time, and for the higher-ups, he said.
"The cooperation with the Russian Federation Air Force personnel has been ongoing for the past year for this particular serial, and at no time was there any discussion about canceling the event for this year," Vien said at the end of the 48-hour long exercise on Thursday.
Gomenkov, commander of the Aerospace Defense Brigade for eastern Russia, agreed with Vien.
"I see no problems," Gomenkov told AP.
During the exercise, a small plane meant to represent a 757 passenger jet was hijacked after taking off from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Two Canadian CF-18 Hornets then stopped the plane, just west of Mount McKinley. Flying at around 500 knots, (about 575 mph), the Canadian fighters then ushered the aircraft over Alaska's western coast, where they handed it off to Russian Sukhoi fighter jets stationed at the border.
From the Bering Strait, a landmass that separates Russia from Alaska, the hijacked plane flew to a Russian Air Force base in Anadyr, Russia.
The next day, the same exercise was executed, only this time, the 757 flew out of Russia.
Vien and Gomenkov both said the drill went down successfully. They're planning next year's exercise in November, and told AP that it'll be tighter and more complex in 2014.