SyriaTurkey’s, Russia’s official versions of jet shoot down scientifically impossible: Physicists

Published 30 November 2015

Two astrophysicists show that the official versions of both Turkey and Russia about the circumstances surrounding the shooting down of a Russian fighter jet over Turkey should be taken with a grain of salt. Turkey’s insists that the Russian jet flew over Turkish territory for 17 seconds, but this is contradicted by the video of the shooting provided by the Turkish military. Russia’s claims that the jet made a 90-dgree turn in order to avoid Turkish airspace does “not correspond to the laws of mechanics.”

Dr. Tom van Doorsslaere and Dr. Giovanni Lapenta, two astrophysicists at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, have written that the laws of physics cast doubts over the official accounts of both Turkey and Russia regarding how the Turkish air force shot down a Russian military plane last Tuesday.

In a blog post on the KU Leuven Web site, the two scientists write that the plane could not have gone down the way either country said it had.

The astrophysicists point to several improbabilities in the official versions of events.

Turkey’s version
Turkey insists that the Russian plane was flying over Turkish territory for seventeen seconds, and that it had traveled over two kilometers of Turkish territory, thus violating Turkish airspace.

The Independent reports that Turkey says that during that period of seventeen seconds, Turkish pilots and ground control had warned the Russian pilot ten times to change course. The decision to shoot down the plane was made only after it had become apparent that the pilot was not heeding the warnings.

The physicists, however, conclude that the evidence shows that the plane was travelling at a speed of 980 km/h (609 m/h), and that at that speed the plane could not have been flying over two kilometers of Turkish territory for more than seven seconds.

In order for the plane to have been over Turkish territory for seventeen seconds, it would have had to fly at an exceedingly slow speed (for a fighter jet) of 420 km/h – but the two scientists note that the videos of the shooting, provided by the Turkish military, proves that the Russian jet was flying at a more normal speed (for a fighter jet) of 980 km/h.

The video shows that the Russian jet takes about thirty seconds to hit the ground. “Because the vertical movement is only dependent on gravity (g=9.81m/s², z=gt²/2), we can calculate that the plane was moving at a height of at least 4,500 meters,” the astrophysicists write. “That number is consistent with the Turkish statement of the jets being at an altitude of 19,000 feet (5,800 meters).”

The map provided by Turkish officials also shows the plane crashed eight kilometers from the place over Turkish territory where it was hit by an air-to-air missile. A simple division suggests an initial speed of 980 km/h, a normal speed for a fighter jet traveling at that altitude.

Since it is unlikely that the plane was flying at 420 km/h,