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Putin Calls Shoot Down Of Russian Jet A 'Stab In The Back' By Turkey With Serious Implications

  • by: Maarten Schenk
  • (Tue, 24 Nov 2015 08:09:51 Z)

The Russian SU-24 Fencer fighter jet shot down near the Turkey-Syrian border Tuesday was given 10 warnings that it was violating Turkey airspace before it was shot down "within engagement rules," Turkish officials said.

The two crew members on the jet ejected before the aircraft crashed and exploded, but there are reports both men are dead. Their parachutes were seen floating into northern Syria territory, which is controlled by rebels hostile to Russia. The Associated Press reports a rebel group claims to have shot one of the pilots to death as he landed. Reuters says it has a video apparently showing a dead pilot with a man nearby saying "God is great."

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the shoot down a "stab in the back" by Turkey that would have serious implications in relations between the two nations.

Russia claims the SU-24 went down inside Syria four kilometers (3 miles) from the Turkish border. Turkish officials released a path analysis map they said shows the war plane did cross over Turkish territory.

Russian Jet Radar over Turkey.jpg

NATO immediately called an emergency session to discuss the crisis.

Whether the plane was indeed violating Turkish airspace or not, the shootdown is certain to complicate matters in Syria even more, bringing a NATO country in direct conflict with Russia or Syria just at a time when there were talks of cooperating against ISIS after the Paris terror attacks.

It appears the pilots were able to eject. Reports are coming in at least one of them has been captured.

A zoomed in image of the plane:

vliegtuig.jpg

Compare:

su24.jpg

Sukhoi SU-24 Fencer

About the author:

Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

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