Turkey shoots down a Russian jet

[Graham Kennedy]

Source

Turkey says its forces have shot down a plane on the border with Syria
Russia says an Su-24 crashed on Syrian territory after being hit by fire from the ground
Turkey says the plane violated its airspace – an accusation Russia denies
President Vladimir Putin calls it 'a stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists'
Turkey is a member of the Nato alliance, which has said it is ready to defend Turkey if Russia violated its airspace

The Su-24 is a Russian attack aircraft, built in response to the F-111.





Footage of the crash :

Turkey has published this radar map of the Russian plane's flightpath :



The odd thing to me is this. Turkey says the followed the Russian jet in an F-16, warning it ten times before shooting it down. But... that bit of Turkey is about two miles across. A jet would cover that distance in seconds - a guy on Sky News just said the jet was over Turkey for 17 seonds total. How exactly do you issue ten warnings in 17 seconds?

So... were they following the jet over Syria as it approached Turkish airspace, warning it to turn? And then they took their chance to shoot the instant it crossed the border?

Either way, Putin is really mad.


In other news, Rebels in Syria are claiming that they have destroyed a Russian Hind helicopter on the ground with a US TOW missile :

[McAvoy]

Well Russia has been flexing it's muscles for the past decade or so bound to happen someone will fight back.

[sunnyside]

I wasn't happy that this happened. Besides being worrisome from an escalation standpoint while it was going on, I was hoping we could move away from the cold war and more towards a shared conflict against radical and violent strains of Islam.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I wasn't happy that this happened. Besides being worrisome from an escalation standpoint while it was going on, I was hoping we could move away from the cold war and more towards a shared conflict against radical and violent strains of Islam.

Pretty much this. It's a very worrisome incident all-around.

[Reliant121]

Seems that, since military action from Moscow looks unlikely, the national rhetoric on both sides is unlikely to back down.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Seems that, since military action from Moscow looks unlikely, the national rhetoric on both sides is unlikely to back down.

As long as it remains not a shooting war, okay then. Thanks for the info.