Video: Flying the mighty F-4 Phantom (and dropping some bombs at rocks in the Aegean Sea)

July 24, 2012 Military Aviation

David Cenciotti

In 2012, the 338 Sqn “Ares” of the Hellenic Air Force celebrated its 60th anniversary. The event was marked also with an interesting video that includes F-4 Phantom cockpit footage as well as some cool images of the Greek combat planes dropping bombs at rocks, small deserted islands in the Aegean sea.

“Turkish Phantom jet fighters [as the one shot down by Syria] routinely violate the Greek airspace.” And get locked by SAM sites. (theaviationist.com)
Was the Turkish F-4 Phantom shot down by Syria actually a drone? A new interesting theory emerges. (theaviationist.com)
Turkish Armed Forces release first images of the debris of the RF-4E Phantom downed by Syria (theaviationist.com)
Phantom Phorever!!! Wittmund hosts last F-4 Spotter Day. For real Phantom Phreaks. (theaviationist.com)
[Updated] Turkish RF-4E Phantom shot down by Syrian Air Defense battery. Known and unknown facts. (theaviationist.com)
[Special Photo Report] Phantom Heaven: among the last F-4 combat planes. Beware, contains alert take off images. (theaviationist.com)
Turkish Phantom shot down by Syria saga continues as new details about the mysterious shooting emerge (theaviationist.com)
Six Turkey’s F-16s scrambled on Syria border after Syrian helicopters came close to the Turkish airspace (theaviationist.com)
Neither gunned down nor hit by a missile. A technical failure may have caused the crash of the Turkish RF-4E in Syria (theaviationist.com)
“Turkish F-4 gunned down by anti-aircraft artillery inside the Syrian airspace” U.S. intelligence says (theaviationist.com)
Latest news about the Turkish F-4 shot down by Syria: still conflicting versions. New detail: rescue plane came under fire too. (theaviationist.com)
“Turkish Phantom shot down because Syrian soldiers may have confused it for an Israeli plane” Syrian Information Minister says (theaviationist.com)

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

David Boggis says:

July 24, 2012 at 4:56 PM

Impressive stuff – well done. But am I mistaken in thinking that one of the munitions that was dropped on the Aegean rock was a cluster bomb? If so, is Greece still using them?
Troy says:

July 24, 2012 at 11:31 PM

Greece is not a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions as are alot of other states including the USA, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Syria, Iran et al. Yes ,the LITENING II pod showed a CBU being deployed. I myself loaded a CBU-97 SFW for load training last week on one of our jets.
lalucre says:

July 25, 2012 at 10:52 AM

I noticed the cluster bomb, too, and was going to ask about it – but someone was quicker. Thx for your answer, Troy.