Distressing evidence
Güncelleme Tarihi:
The Greek pilot, who downed a Turkish F-16 to the Aegean Sea 7 years ago, drew the picture of the Turkish flag on the nose of his Mirage 2000 airplane. Captain Nail Erdogan was killed in the crash of F-16, which was shot by the Greek airplane in 1996.
Levent Basara, the Publication Director of the Kanatlar (Wings) magazine, published the photograph of the Greek airplane with a Turkish flag drawn on it, which was the evidence that the Turkish airplane was downed because there is no other reason for a Greek pilot to draw the Turkish flag on his airplane. This tradition of placing marks on the nose of aircraft dates back to the 2nd World War.
Commander: We can demand compensation
Ahmet Corekci, who was the Air Force Commander during the period of the crash, said, “We could not ask for compensation at that time because there was no concrete evidence, but now we can.”
Then-Foreign Minister Onur Oymen said that, “It was possible to comment from the voice records of the Greek pilot that he shot our airplane, but there was no concrete evidence and the crash was called an accident. Now it is necessary to demand information from Athens immediately.”
Pilot: I thought that the fuel depot was burning
Retired Pilot Major Mustafa Akman, who was accompanying the downed aircraft before the crash, said that he saw that the airplane was burning and he thought that the fuel depot caught fire. He said, “The Greek airplanes were also surprised with the situation. If they had really shot out airplane, they would have escaped immediately.”