ANKARA, Nov 24 – Turkey shot down a Russian warplane Tuesday, claiming it had violated Turkish airspace and ignored repeated warnings. Russia denied that the plane crossed the Syrian border into Turkish skies. Russia’s Defense Ministry said they are looking into the circumstances of the crash of the Russian jet.
Russia said the Ministry of Defense would like to stress that the plane was over the Syrian territory throughout the flight. Russia said the Su-24 was downed by artillery fire, but Turkey claimed that its F-16s fired on the Russian plane after it ignored several warnings. The ministry said the pilots parachuted but added that Moscow had no further contact with them.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Tuesday called the downing of a Russian Su-24 warplane in Syria a “very serious incident”, but said it was too early to draw conclusions. Russian helicopters are searching for the pilots, private Dogan News Agency reported.
In the meantime, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was also briefed by the head of the military, while Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had also been ordered the consultations with NATO, the United Nations and related countries, their respective offices said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the warplane crashed in a mountainous area in the northern countryside of Latakia province, where there had been aerial bombardment earlier and where pro-government forces have been battling insurgents on the ground. Both Russia and its ally, Syria’s government, have carried out strikes in the area.
“Footage from private Turkish broadcaster Haberturk TV showed the warplane going down in flames in a woodland area, a long plume of smoke trailing behind it. The plane went down in area known by Turks as “Turkmen Mountain. One of the pilots of the shot down plane was in the hands of Turkmen forces in Syria who were searching for the other pilot, broadcaster CNN Turk reported, citing local sources,” a Syrian military source said.
