Fuel is less dense than water (.8025 g/ml vs. 1.0) and the MQ-9 is designed to fly in all weather conditions. So it's highly unlikely the fuel bent the tip of the prop.
Given that just one blade is bent, the contact had to be very fleeting (there wasn't time for the next blade to come around and also strike the Su-27). It's bad luck on the Russian pilot's part to cause something undeniable like this - but this isn't stopping Moscow from making obviously untrue claims.
Cold-war story time. In college I had a roommate who was former Navy, and he told me of the time that they pranked the Soviets. Their group of ships had been shadowed by a Soviet "fishing vessel"[0] and they had gotten tired of them stooging around. At the time it was normal for ships to dump their trash overboard [1] in weighted bags. So they prepared a bag by filling it with the 80's best "adult education material" - only with all the good parts cut out and various insults scribbled on the pages. And topped it off with the messiest of slops from the galley. They intentionally did not add the steel weight, and tossed it off the stern. A gleeful crowd gathered to watch as the Soviets swooped in to collect their floating "intelligence haul".
Moral of the story - pranking is one thing. Intentionally or accidentally causing a collision? Not cool.
Fuel is less dense than water (.8025 g/ml vs. 1.0) and the MQ-9 is designed to fly in all weather conditions. So it's highly unlikely the fuel bent the tip of the prop.
Rain does't hurt. Getting nailed in the head with a water balloon hurts.
The density of rain and the density of a fuel dump are not equivalent.
My father tells almost the same story of dumping their porno mags in the garbage for the trailing Russkies to retrieve. Mediterranean float, late 80s, USS Inchon I believe. He also spent time in Iceland watching for Spetsnaz.
Given that just one blade is bent, the contact had to be very fleeting (there wasn't time for the next blade to come around and also strike the Su-27). It's bad luck on the Russian pilot's part to cause something undeniable like this - but this isn't stopping Moscow from making obviously untrue claims.
Cold-war story time. In college I had a roommate who was former Navy, and he told me of the time that they pranked the Soviets. Their group of ships had been shadowed by a Soviet "fishing vessel"[0] and they had gotten tired of them stooging around. At the time it was normal for ships to dump their trash overboard [1] in weighted bags. So they prepared a bag by filling it with the 80's best "adult education material" - only with all the good parts cut out and various insults scribbled on the pages. And topped it off with the messiest of slops from the galley. They intentionally did not add the steel weight, and tossed it off the stern. A gleeful crowd gathered to watch as the Soviets swooped in to collect their floating "intelligence haul".
Moral of the story - pranking is one thing. Intentionally or accidentally causing a collision? Not cool.
[0] Probably one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primor%27ye-class_surveillance...
[1] They now compress and store most waste until they return to port: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpFF6c3C730