Since it made its first appearance on-line in the night of Jul. 24, I’ve been asked to identify the “mysterious” aircraft spotted over Aleppo earlier on the same day.
Depicted in a BBC report as one of more “Russian-made MiG planes [that] arced through the sky. We watched as they dropped in, bombing and strafing rebel positions” the combat plane is a Syrian Arab Air Force L-39, a combat trainer.
The aircraft can (at least theoretically) be equipped with an under fuselage gun pod and external stores (bombs, rockets and missiles) carried on the four underwing hardpoints (up to 1,000 kg of stores).
Unfortunately, the quality of the following video, that is the best I’ve seen so far, does not give the possibility to see whether the plane is carrying any weapon.
Even if, based on reports, the L-39 (or other “Migs” that are not visible in the footage) was used to drop bombs on rebel position, it could also be used for reconnaissance purposes only (without any armament).
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It really annoys how BBC, CNN and other news agencies distort the truth to further their Governments agendas. Cant they see how it affects their credibility?
http://syriathemediawar.blogspot.com.es/2012/07/the-bbcs-ian-pannell-travelled-with.html
Lots of BBC trickery at this link.
I’ve taken a look at this as well, and managed to find a couple more videos which I’ve posted on my blog that does seem to show they are clearly L-39s, not MiGs.
http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/jets-spotted-above-aleppo-migs-or.html
This is the journalistic assumption that all combat aircraft in that part of the world are “Migs,” much like the spiel that all “assault weapons are “AK-47s” There is a team that appears in our local air show that flys L-39s, so we know what they look like.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/BBC_Rides_with_Al_Qaeda_in_Aleppo%2C_Syria/20695/0/38/38/Y/M.html
More BBC propaganda.