LONDON: yphoons from Britain’s Royal Air Force based in Romania were scrambled in response to a Russian warplane flying near NATO airspace over the Black Sea on Thursday. The RAF said the fighter jets went into action from an air base near the port of Constanta after a suspected Su-24 FENCER aircraft was spotted in the area. In a statement, it quoted a Typhoon pilot who was on duty as saying: “The Russian aircraft did not enter NATO airspace so we were ordered to patrol the skies for a short period of time as a deterrent, until finally returning,” to the base. The RAF mission in Romania is part of NATO’s Assurance Measures introduced in 2014. Romanian officials referred questions to NATO and the British government.