Greek, Turkish jets collide over Aegean sea

[akritas]

Tue May 23, 2006 6:26am EThttp://i.today.reuters.com/images/spacer.gif
ATHENS (Reuters) -
A Greek and a Turkish fighter jet collided in midair above the southern Aegean island of Karpathos on Tuesday, a Greek defense ministry official said.
"The two jets collided above Karpathos. We don't know what has happened to the pilots yet," he told Reuters.
It was not clear what type of planes had crashed.
The Turkish defense ministry was not immediately available for comment.


Archrivals Greece and Turkey regularly criticize each other for causing mock dogfights between warplanes over the Aegean sea.
Greece's defense ministry says it daily scrambles several fighter jets to intercept Turkish jets that it claims have invaded its airspace.
The two countries, who came close to war as recently as 1996, have considerably improved ties but have not resolved territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea and over the divided island of Cyprus.

http://www.ninisworld.com/places/karpathos2000/images/karpahere.gif


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There is an eye witness. An Egyptian pilot. He saw two explosions - lights when flew in FIR Athens. Our Turkish "allies" and the Agean games.

Also the Greek pilot is still missing.
I believe that killed in the coalition t

[HellenicPride]

Its a shame that they couldnt find the Greek. I guess its unfortunately pretty safe to assume that he is deceased. Karamanlis needs to grow some arxidia and step up to the plate. How long are the Turks going to harrass Greek airspace and sea? This has been going on and on. Its also obvious that war is definately not needed but seriously sometimes you have to take drastic measures in order to prove a point. Look now another lost Greek and the Turk he is home. :mad:

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

Poor kid. This is a real shame.

[nsminc]

Apparently a Greek ship tried to rescue the Turkish pilot.He pulled out his gun and told the ship to get lost.He was later picked up by passing merchant ship.

Axxxxx.............

[akritas]

The merchandise ship "Grounds Century", with Panama flag , Japanese interests (company Yamamaru) collected in international waters of southernly island Karpathos the Turkish pilot, while simultaneously arrived and helicopter Super Puma of HAF. The Greeks rescuers , with the Captain of navigable Hellenic Coast Guard boat that arrived on the region, they got on the Panamanian boat for benefit of help on the Turkish pilot, which denied the help, invoking his even physics situation. Then, with the request of Turkish side, was allowed the receipt of Turkish pilotr, from Turkish Helicopter, which arrived later in the region.
As about if the Turkish pilot pull out gun is not confirmes but also neither denialed

[admin]

Funny the Turkish assholes didnt even help look for the downed Greek pilot

[Orphic_Hymn]

The whole issue brings up several questions like :

since there was a second Hellinic F16 implicated in the interception, why not just take a look at what the second F16's camera has recorded ???

why take 4 whole hours to make a simple statement if it was nothing more than an accident ???

why does the captain of the ship and his company reject to make a simple statement on the issue ???

Too many theories... I just hope we dont have yet another Imia on our hands...

[akritas]

Few thinks about FIR



In order to facilitate international air transport, the global airspace was divided into Flight Information Regions (FIR), and air traffic control responsibilities are assigned to the "Air Traffic Services Authorities" of the respective states. A country's FIR may correspond to its national airspace but it can also extend over international airspace.

In 1952, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), established by the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation (1944), defined the FIR limits of European countries while regional plans were drawn up in 1952 and 1958 in Paris and Geneva, respectively. At that time ICAO also defined the limits of

Greece (http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article5.html)'s and European Turkey (http://www.f-16.net/f-16_users_article21.html)'s FIRs, known as "Athinai FIR" and "Istanbul FIR."



The Athens FIR covers airspace extending from the Ionian sea in the west to the Hellenic-Turkish borders in the east. The eastern limits are defined by a line passing between the Greek islands of the Aegean and the Turkish islands and mainland coast, bordering the outer edge of the Turkish territorial waters. Thus, the Athens FIR covers the whole of Greece's airspace plus scattered sections of international airspace.

In accordance with the ICAO regulations and with international practice, all aircraft, civil and military alike, must submit proper notification before crossing the FIR boundary

.

So we must not confuse the FIR territorial borders line with the national territorial borders(6,10 or 12 miles)