Turkish Air Force F-16 has just shot down a Syrian helicopter that violated the Turkish airspace

September 16, 2013 Syria, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

According to an official statement by Turkey’s deputy PM, a Syrian helicopter (possibly an Mi-8/17 Hip, based on the amount of such types in service) that had violated the Turkish airspace by 2 km was shot down earlier today by Turkish Air Force F-16s.

The episode took place at 4.00 PM local time in the southern province of Hatay, near Güveççi.

According to the first reports, a number of F-16s were scrambled to intercept the chopper as soon as it was nearing the border.

In June 2012, a Turkish RF-4E Phantom reconnaissance jet was downed by a Syrian Air Defense Unit. On Sept. 2, Assad launched two Syrian Air Force Su-24 attack planes towards Cyprus to probe British airbase’s air defenses; the aircraft turned back to Syria, after RAF Typhoons and TuAF F-16s were scrambled to intercept them.

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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

  2. A pretty radio echo graph doesn’t mean a lot and is easily ‘amended’. How can a helicopter claimed to be 2km on one side of a border get shot up, descend vertically, then end up 1km on the other side of the border. It doesn’t add up. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

    • Autorotation? Mi-17 was flying at 14200 feet altitude, and following a flightpath parallel to border.

      Makes sense to me.

      • According to the graph it wasn’t parallel to the border and on the video clip it is falling like stone trailing smoke. What does make sense is that this was another violation of Syrian airspace by NATO on behalf of their terrorist proxies because the Mi-17 was in fact tracking NATO weapon supplies to the FSA/Al Qaeda/Al Nusra, sharia law moderate killers.

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