L-39 Albatros jet trainer spotted over Aleppo, Syria.

July 25, 2012 Syria
David Cenciotti

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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About David Cenciotti
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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.

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5 Comments

  1. 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?

  4. 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.

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