SyriaTurkey shoots down Russian war plane over Turkey

Published 24 November 2015

In a significant escalation of tension along the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkish military aircraft earlier Tuesday shot down a Russian jet after the jet violated Turkey’s airspace. The Turkish announcement said that despite repeated warnings from Turkish F-16 interceptors to turn away, the Russia jet continued to fly over Turkish territory. The incident is a reminder of the growing risks in the increasingly crowded skies over Syria, where planes from the United States, the U.S.-led coalition, Russia, the Syrian air force, France, and, soon, the United Kingdom pursue different missions without a great deal of coordination.

In a significant escalation of tension along the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkish military aircraft earlier Tuesday shot down a Russian jet after the jet violated Turkey’s airspace. The Turkish announcement said that despite repeated warnings from Turkish F-16 interceptors to turn away, the Russia jet continued to fly over Turkish territory.

The BBC reports that Russian officials confirmed that a Russian Su-24 warplane, one of thirty-two fixed-wing aircraft and sixteen helicopters Russia had sent to Syria two months ago to help save the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, had been shot down, but said it never left Syria airspace and this never violated Turkish airspace.

The Russian Defense Ministry offered its own version of events, saying the plane was flying at an altitude of 6,000 meters and was probably brought down “due to shelling from the ground.” The Russian Defense Ministry added it wanted to “stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight.”

The BBC notes that a video showed a warplane on fire in mid-air before crashing to the ground, and two crew members parachuting, apparently safely. Turkish news agencies, however, said that the fate of the two pilots is not clear, and that Russian rescue helicopters could be seen searching for the pilot over the Turkmen Bayirbucak region.

CNN reports that at least one of the pilots was killed.

In October, Turkey downed a Russian drone flying a surveillance missions across the Syria-Turkish border. The drone crossed onto Turkish airspace, and was shot down.

Earlier in October, a Russian jet entered Turkish airspace, but was chased away by Turkish jets. Russia apologized for what it described as a “a navigational error.”