The Turkish military released details on Wednesday of a collision between Turkish and Greek fighter jets in disputed airspace between the two Nato allies, saying that the Greek F-16 “harassed” the Turkish plane and crashed into it.
An air force statement said two Turkish F-16s and an F-4, “on a routine training flight”, were confronted by two Greek F-16s in an interception attempt before Tuesday’s crash.
“The Greek F-16 planes approached and harassed our planes, breaching the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the rules of engagement,” the statement, carried by Anatolia news agency, said.
It said such rules required aircraft to keep at least 300m apart.
“As our planes continued their flight without any manoeuvring or engagement … a fast-approaching Greek F-16 slammed into a Turkish F-16 from behind and from underneath,” it said.
The Turkish pilot ejected safely, while the Greek was officially listed as missing, even though Ankara said he had died.
The air force denied the jets had engaged in a simulated “dogfight”, or close-range aerial combat between military aircraft, which is a frequent occurrence between planes of the two countries.
It insisted that the Turkish planes did not violate Greek territory and that the crash occurred in international airspace, detailing the collision spot as 55km south of the Greek island of Rhodes.
It gave the spot’s coordinates as 35,24º north, 27,50º, saying it was technically in the Mediterranean airspace and not the Aegean as initially reported.
Greece charged that the Turkish planes entered the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) — the flight zone overseen by the Athens airport control tower — “without laying down flight plans” and “violating the rules of aerial navigation”.
Turkey says FIR rules pertain only to civilian aviation, thus exempting Ankara from handing over military flight plans to Athens.
At the core of the dispute lies Greece’s claim of an airspace extending to 16km around its coastline. Turkey recognises only 10km, arguing that under international rules Greece’s airspace cannot go beyond the extent of its territorial waters.
The two countries sought to defuse tension as their foreign ministers and army chiefs engaged in immediate dialogue after the crash. Both said they did not want the incident to damage a significant thaw in bilateral ties in recent years. — AFP