Turkish, Greek F-16s engage in "dog-fight" over Aegean; Greek pilot dies
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Yesterday afternoon, two F-16s, one belonging to the Turkish air force, and one to the Greek force, engaged in a mid-air dog fight over Kerpe Island, south of the island of Rhodes, off the Turkish coast over the Aegean Sea. When the two planes crashed, the Turkish pilot, First Lieutenant Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, activated his seat ejection capabilites, and landed safely by parachute into the sea, where he was picked up by a passing Greek trade ship.
The Greek pilot however was not as lucky, and died in the crash.
Diplomatic cogs in Ankara and Athens began turning immediately after the incident, with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul making an urgent telephone call to Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis. Bakoyannis cut short her trip to Finland, and returned to the Greek capital to oversee an investigation into the incident.
At a press conference yesterday at the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Gul said the following in regards to the event:
"Our helicopters went to pick up our pilot. Unfortunately, the Greek pilot did lose his life. It was an incident which took place in international air space. We are looking into exactly what happened.....As you know, there are currently efforts at hand to increase trust between Greece and Turkey. We are trying to bring them to the level that events like what occured today will also be prevented in the future.