MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. A NATO Northrop Grumman RQ-4D Phoenix strategic reconnaissance drone flying over Black Sea waters has signaled an air communications system failure while in the air, a source in the EU air traffic control services told TASS.

"The drone is currently over the neutral waters of the Mediterranean Sea near Crete Island where it is following a square-shaped trajectory and signaling communications failure," the source said. He emphasized that initially, the drone, controlled by the Italian Air Force, took off from the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, after which reached the Black Sea where it flew from west to east and back over neutral waters in the southern part of the area. "The aircraft was flying at an altitude of over 16 km without entering the airspace of any countries and outside the corridors for civil aircraft flight," the source said.

The drone’s flight followed the usual path taken by the NATO Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II aircraft on regular flights over the Black Sea in the Baltic region since Tuesday morning, as it has been detected there and in the area of the Kaliningrad Region’s borders.

The source did not specify the possible reasons for the drone’s communications system’s failure signal. He said, however, that one of the functions of the Northrop Grumman RQ-4D Phoenix drone, whose flight was last recorded over the Black Sea on July 17, is imaging of large areas and transmitting the data in real time. "The drone is currently circling over the Mediterranean," the source noted.