And here’s the official statement of the Syrian Armed Forces about the downing of a helicopter on the Turkish border

Provided the following is genuine (since it was published on Facebook, it is hard to determine its authentiticy), it represents the official statement of the General Command of the Syrian Armed Forces, about the downing of the Mi-17 by an F-16 from 181 Filo.

The text is published so as it appeared on the Internet (hence, with some errors in the translation).

A military helicopter had been lost on Monday afternoon “09/16/2013” during the a reconnaissance sorties to control the infiltration of terrorists across the Turkish border in “Alyonseah” area near the village of “Bdama” in the countryside of Latakia.

After the investigates shows that helicopter mistakenly entered Turkish airspace for a short distance and then returned towards the Syrian territory immediately upon receipt the competent guidance from the command center.

During the exit of the helicopter, a Turkish warplanes have targeted it directly to fall inside Syrian territory.
The hasty reaction from the Turkish side, especially that the plane was on the way back, and were not charged in any combat missions, is nothing but a proof of “Erdogan” government’s true intentions toward the Syria in straining the atmosphere and the escalation of the situation on the border between the two countries.

In other words, the helicopter was neither fleeing nor performing any bombing run. According to the Syrian authorities, it was flying a border control mission when it violated the Turkish airspace and was attacked by the 181 Filo F-16 deployed to Malatya airbase while egressing it.

The Turkish aircraft probably used an AIM-9 Sidewinder IR guided air-to-air missile to down the Mi-17 Hip.
Once hit, the helicopter fell into the ground about half kilometer from the border, on the Syrian side. The crew members escaped the chopper with their parachutes and survived the crash, but they were captured by Syrian rebels and killed (beheaded).

There are so many similarities with the downing of a Turkish Air Force RF-4E inside the Syrian airspace on Jun. 22, 2012.

H/T to Strategy Reports for the heads-up

Image credit: TuAF

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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.