[size=3]President Gül orders recovery of 1996 crash pilot remains[/size]

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

President Abdullah Gül has given orders to recover the remains of an F-16 jet pilot, whose body has been in the waters of the Aegean for 16 years, since his aircraft was shot down in a dogfight with Greek fighter jets.

Gül’s move comes shortly after research boat Nautilus was able to locate the wreckage of a Turkish reconnaissance jet believed to have been downed by Syria. Along with the wreckage Nautilus located and recovered the bodies of the two reconnaissance pilots last week. This has given new hope to the family of F-16 pilot Capt. Nail Erdoğan, whose plane crashed over the Aegean on Oct. 8, 1996.

His daughter, Evrim Erdoğan, 23, said she hoped her father’s body could be found. “Nautilus was able to pull the bodies of our two pilots from the Mediterranean. It should also find the remains of my father, who became a martyr 16 years ago.”

After Evrim Erdoğan’s call for help was published in newspapers, President Abdullah Gül ordered the General Staff to recover the remains of Capt. Erdoğan, located 400 meters under the sea a few miles off the coast of the island of Samos, daily Hürriyet reported. Evrim Erdoğan said she was filled with joy upon this order. “I am floating on the air from joy … I hope our joy and excitement will not result in disappointment. I hope they can reach my father, who is sleeping in an iron cage 400 meters deep. We would like to thank our esteemed president for his interest,” Evrim Erdoğan said.

Tufan Turanlı, the Turkish captain of the world-renowned vessel Nautilus, which is assisting with the removal of the pilots’ bodies from the jet downed over the Mediterranean by Syria last month, stated that the team is now ready to remove Erdoğan’s body from the jet. Erdoğan’s daughter Evrim Erdoğan personally requested that her father’s corpse be removed, Turanlı said.

“I said before that we would do our best. All the citizens and soldiers of Turkey have equal value to us. Today, I was filled with joy when I saw our president’s order in the newspapers. It is a sacred thing for me to carry out Evrim’s request. I am ready for duty. We will definitely go. If the government authorities ask us, we are ready to do our best,” Turanlı said.

July/19/2012

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/president-gul-orders-recovery-of-1996-crash-pilot-remains.aspx?pageID=238&nID=25902&NewsCatID=341

Thanks to JJ6

Doubts Cast on Turkey’s Story of Jet

U.S. Intelligence, Contradicting Ankara, Indicates Aircraft Was Shot Down by Syria in Its Own Airspace, Officials Say

By JULIAN E. BARNES, ADAM ENTOUS and JOE PARKINSON

U.S. intelligence indicates that a Turkish warplane shot down by Syrian forces was most likely hit by shore-based antiaircraft guns while it was inside Syrian airspace, American officials said, a finding in tune with Syria’s account and at odds with Turkey.

The Turkish government, which moved tanks to the Syrian border after the June 22 incident, says the debris fell in Syrian waters, but maintains its fighter was shot down without warning in international airspace. Ankara also has said the jet was hit too far from Syrian territory to have been engaged by an antiaircraft gun.

Damascus has said it shot down the plane with an antiaircraft battery with an effective range of about 1.5 miles.

“We see no indication that it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile” as Turkey says, said a senior defense official. Officials declined to specify the sources of their information. The senior U.S. defense official cautioned that much remains unknown about the incident.

A Turkish official said he wasn’t aware of the American doubts, and reiterated the government’s position that a Syrian missile downed the plane in international airspace.

read more…
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304830704577497081567553846.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Why was it very appropriate?

[size=2]Helmets found as search continues for missing pilots[/size]

ISTANBUL

Helmets belonging to the two missing pilots of the downed Turkish jet were found alongside parts of the plane wreckage, Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım said, according to daily Hürriyet.

The search for the missing pilots continues, Yıldırım said.

Two pairs of boots, also believed to belong to the missing pilots were found several days before, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had said during a meeting with opposition leaders.

There were no signs of parachutes near the wreckage and the pilots may not have used their ejection seats, according to information provided by the prime minister.

Turkish naval and air forces have been attempting to locate Capt. Gökhan Ertan and Lt. Hüseyin Aksoy since their jet was hit by Syrian forces in international waters on June 22.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/helmets-found-as-search-continues-for-missing-pilots.aspx?pageID=238&nID=24171&NewsCatID=341

Turkey could have downed 114 planes for airspace violations: Army

Turkey’s air space has been violated 114 separate times so far this year but each instance was quickly resolved peacefully, the General Staff has said following Syria’s downing of a Turkish warplane for violating its airspace.

“We would have shot down 114 planes if every aircraft that violated a country’s airspace were shot down without questioning,” the General Staff said, according to daily Milliyet.

A majority of the violations were done by Greek aircraft, with Italian and Israeli aircraft also known to have violated Turkish air space this year. “Air space violations are incidents that happen almost every day, and are resolved in a matter of minutes within international law,” the General Staff said in a statement.

Six airplanes violated Turkish airspace last week alone, the General Staff said, of which none were shot down and left Turkey’s airspace after they were warned by Turkish personnel.

A violation of one to two kilometers is accepted as “natural” given the speed of aircraft, the statement said. This year’s violations of Turkish airspace lasted between 20 seconds and nine minutes, which showed “airspace violations can be resolved by warning and interceptions,” the statement said.

According to radar traces provided by the chief of General Staff, the Turkish F-4 jet that was downed on June 22 was hit 13 nautical miles off the Syrian coast in international waters but crashed in Syrian territorial waters. The records show that the Turkish jet unintentionally violated Syrian airspace at 11:42 a.m. for five minutes, 16 minutes before contact was lost with the jet. At 11:44 a.m. Turkish radars informed the jet that it had entered Syrian airspace and told it to leave as soon as possible.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-could-have-downed-114-planes-for-airspace-violations-army–.aspx?pageID=238&nID=23963&NewsCatID=338

These guys make me smile. 😀

You see that Italy, you don’t escape the criticism!

What is the Syrian airspace limit? 12nm? And why does it look smaller on the Turkish supplied graphics? Turkey limit is 12nm right? But to my eye Syria look a little short changed.

But that’s just me. 😉

These Turkish RF-4 were over Cyprus around 11:30pm that day doing there routine straying violations as Mr Gul has stated. Also an CN235 EW version was in the area as well. They took their pictures of the cypriot defence movements before turning and heading for Syria.

They were tracked by cypriot radar. It was a wake up call for Turkey.

A series of pictures of yesterdays incident taken by a Bulgarian plane spotter.

As seen on ΠΤΗΣΗ & ΔΙΑΣΤΗΜΑ’s mags Blog site:
http://ptisidiastima.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/bulgarian-mig-29/