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"Turkish Phantom shot down because Syrian soldiers may have confused it for an Israeli plane" Syrian Information Minister says June 28, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in : Syria, Turkish RF-4E shot down , trackback

Although much of what has happened on Jun. 22, when a Turkish Air Force RF-4E from Erhac was shot down by a Syrian air defense battery remains a mystery, at least the reasons why the aircraft was fired at after violating the Syrian airspace were (possibly) disclosed on Jun. 27, when the Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zubi.

Indeed, as reported by the Times of Israel, the minister told the Turkish news station A Haber, that Syrian personnel operating the anti-aircraft site may have confused the Turkish RF-4E for an Israeli Phantom, even if the Israeli Air Force has decommissioned the last F-4 in 2004.

“Turkish planes and Israeli planes look alike [...] If an Israeli plane enters Syria, it is welcomed by fire. [The Turkish plane] might have been believed to be an Israeli plane; we did not want to take down a Turkish plane,” he said.

However, according to the information made public by the Turkish authorities, based on intercepted radio comms, the aircraft was clearly identified as Turkish before being downed (outside the Syrian airspace, according to Ankara’s version)

Whereas the Turkish and Syrian reconstructions of the mishap are still conflicting, Syria had previously claimed the downing of the Turkish jet (possibly involved in a mission aimed at probing Damascus air defenses near the Syrian territorial waters) was an accident caused by the “automatic response” of the officer commanding the anti-aircraft position near Lattakia.

Furthermore, the aircraft might have been downed by a new Iranian-made anti-aircraft gun whose presence was not known to the Turkish aircrew according to several Syrian news outlets.

As reported by Ynet News, Damascus purchased the new system, that can be mounted on armored vehicles and can engage planes at very low altitudes, two years ago.

TuAF RF-4E Phantom II

Image credit: Turkish Air Force

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  • http://blogs.wefrag.com/SPhoenix SPhoenix

    Do we have any more details on that mounted Iranian AA? Is that the Pantsir-S1 they had ordered a few years ago?

  • sphoenix

    I remember the Syrian Army buying some Pantsir-S1 a few years back. Would that be the system that shot down the Phantom? In which case it’d make this the first operational kill of the platform I believe…

  • Victorinox

    No radar will ID the specific type of plane, so there is no way they knew this was a Phantom in the first place. All you can do is infer what it is by its flight characteristics (speed, change in altitude, heading, etc). They probably concluded it was a fighter, but they had no way of knowing if that was a Phantom, or a Viper, or whatever. So I think what the news meant is not that they though this was an Israeli Phantom instead of a Turkish Phantom, but an Israeli fighter instead of a Turkish one.

  • Mr. Costa Boda

    Can you say “Gulf of Tonkin”?



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