Blogger News Network

May 23, 2006 

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Two fighter planes, a Turkish F-16 plane and a Greek F-16 collided in mid air and crashed into the Aegean Sea.The location of the crash is approximately 10 miles east of Karpathos, a Greek island in the southern part of the Aegean Sea.

Yiannis Papageorgiou a spokesman for the Greek Air Force says that the Greek F-16 was dispatched to intercept and identify the Turkish plane which according to Papageorgiou was violating the Athens Flight Information Region, when the two planes collided.

The Greek Defense Ministry said earlier that "the planes collided during interception manoeuvres above Karpathos. We don't know what has happened to the Greek pilot yet." The Turkish pilot, Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, who denied to be rescued by Greek frogmen, was rescued by a passing merchant ship.

Vecdi Gonul, Defense Minister for the Turkish government released a partial statement saying, "we're still waiting for definite information and our Chief of Staff is speaking to the Greek Chief of Staff."

Puma helicopters as well as rescue personnel have been dispatched to the area.

When the event became known, Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah G�l communicated immediately with his counterpart, Dora Bakoyiannis in order to have a first conversation regarding the fighter planes' crash.

Both countries disagree on the boundaries of their airspace over the sea and fighters sometimes conduct mock dogfights in the area between the two countries.

Sources

• Edna Fernandes "Greek and Turkish fighter jets collide in Aegean Sea". Times Online, May 23, 2006

• "Greek, Turkish Fighter Jets Collide in Aegean Sea, Greece Says". Bloomberg, May 23, 2006

• "Greek fighter, Turkish reconnaissance planes crash over eastern Aegean sea". Forbes, May 23, 2006

• The Associated Press "Greek, Turkish jets collide over Aegean island". MSNBC, May 23, 2006

• BBC News Europe "Greek and Turkish planes collide". BBC, May 23, 2006