Aircraft
Turkey Takes Action Against Russia’s Syrian Air War
Shootdown of Su-24 prompts immediate Russian reaction to defend its warplanes, after a month of intensive airstrikes on the divided country.
The Russian defense ministry released this map showing the routes in red of the Su-24 that was shot down (inset), and the intercepting Turkish F-16 in blue. But Turkey released a map of radar traces that suggested the Russian aircraft did not avoid the salient of Turkish territory that protrudes into Syria. [Map: Russian defense ministry]
The Russian defense ministry released this map showing the routes in red of the Su-24 that was shot down (inset), and the intercepting Turkish F-16 in blue. But Turkey released a map of radar traces that suggested the Russian aircraft did not avoid the salient of Turkish territory that protrudes into Syria. [Map: Russian defense ministry]

The shooting down of a Russian Su-24M warplane by a Turkish F-16 Tuesday on the Syrian border capped a month in which Moscow demonstrated strategic, as well as tactical air power. Turkey claimed that it had issued several warnings about violations of its airspace by Russian military aircraft conducting airstrikes over Syria. Both crew members ejected, but the pilot was killed (reportedly by small arms groundfire as he descended in his parachute), only the navigator being rescued by a Russian Mi-8 helicopter. A second Mi-8 rescue helicopter was forced down by small arms fire, with one crewman killed, according to the Russian defense ministry. Syrian rebels posted video that apparently showed the grounded Mi-8 destroyed with an American-supplied TOW anti-armor missile.


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