Updated: Turkey has just shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 near the border with Syria

November 24, 2015 Russia, Syria, Troubled Areas, War on ISIS
David Cenciotti
Image credit: Yeni Safak

Images coming from Syria show a Su-24 Fencer in flames. And it’s Russian.

On Nov. 24, 2015, the Turkish Air Force shot down what appears to be a Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer that, according to the first reports, violated Turkey’s airspace.

It’s unclear whether the aircraft was shot down by a TuAF F-16 (as some media have reported) or by a Turkish Army anti-aircraft battery but, what really matters is that according to Turkish Presidency, the Su-24 shot down belongs to the Russian Air Force contingent in Syria.

The Su-24 Fencer is a swing-wing attack plane operated by both the Syrian Arab Air Force and by the Russian Air Force that has deployed 12 Su-24M2 at Latakia since the end of September.

The Su-24 Fencer is a supersonic, all-weather attack aircraft developed in the Soviet Union and serving, among the others, even with the Iranian and Libyan Air Force.  It’s twin-engined two-seater plane with a variable geometry wing, designed to perform ultra low level strike missions.

If confirmed this was not the first Russian planes breached into the Turkish airspace. On Oct. 3 and 4 a Russian Air Force Su-30SM and Su-24 aircraft violated Ankara’s sovereign airspace in the Hatay region. NATO said that the Russian combat planes entered Turkish airspace despite Turkish authorities’ “clear, timely and repeated warnings.” In that case, TuAF F-16s in QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) were scrambled to identify the intruder, after which the Russian planes departed Turkish airspace. Nevertheless, as if violating the airspace of a NATO member was not enough, the Russian Su-30SM maintained a radar lock on one or both the F-16s for a full 5 minutes and 40 seconds. According the Russians, the violation was due to a “navigation error.” Following the incident Ankara said it would shot down any aircraft violating their sovereign airspace as done in the past with the Syrian Mig-23 and Mi-17. Last month there were rumors that a Russian plane had been shot down by the Turkish Air Force near the border that proved to be false.

Update: here’s the radar picture showing both the Su-24 and the F-16 tracks. The violation was quite short (17 seconds). According to the Turkish authorities the Russian plane was issued 10 warnings in 5 minutes before being shot down.

Radar track

According to the Russian MoD, no violation occurred at all.

Both pilots ejected. One of them, whose photo has appeared on Social Media, died. Russian Mi-8 helicopter escorted by Mi-24 gunship from Latakia were spotted searching for the aircrew in Syrian territory:

Update: there are reports (still unconfirmed) that rebels shot down one of the rescue choppers. However, according to ACIG editor Tom Cooper the Russian CSAR helo was heavily shot up by insurgent ground fire and limped back to Russian helidrone at Istamo (south of Lattakia). Reportedly, no crewmember was injured.

 

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

  4. Did you all guys know that Russian jets WARNED 400 times by nato in 2014? And 2015’s in just 8 month, NATO warned russian jets 300 times. So this is their sickness and theyre doin that all the time. So they got their lesson anyway i believe. Btw putin lying about turkey buying oil from isis or işid or whatever all those are putin’s lie. Erdoğan said yesterday if they prove this with only one evidence, i’ll leave my job. what if you cant prove this, will go get out of your sit? OFC putin couldnt answer that. stop lying world, poor peoples believe that lies.

  5. Having checked-out a few NATO airspace maps, very few follow the land border, they are straight lines for the most part; so why is the border between Syria and Turkey being treated as if the land border is the NATO airspace border. I also looked at the Russian violations in the Baltic around Kaliningrad and would say it is near impossible to for Russia to fly there without violation!

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