Türkİye, Middle East

Anadolu Agency team witnesses downing of Russian jet

Cameraman Erdal Turkoglu, photographer Fatih Aktas talk of seeing Russian warplane shot down

24.11.2015 - Update : 25.11.2015
Anadolu Agency team witnesses downing of Russian jet

Ankara

ADANA, Turkey

Anadolu Agency journalists spoke on Tuesday of the moment they saw a Russian jet downed on the Turkey-Syria border.

Cameraman Erdal Turkoglu and photographer Fatih Aktas travelled to the border at Yayladagi early Tuesday morning to report on developments at the Syrian border.

Turkoglu said they heard the sound of a jet and looked to the sky.

“Suddenly we saw a fireball up in the air,” he said. “While the fireball was falling down slowly we realized that it was an aircraft and we started to record it.”

Aktas added that at first he heard a sound and a fireball appeared shortly afterwards.

"At that moment, I pressed the shutter button immediately. I kept going until the plane fell to the ground. Then I photographed the pilots’ parachutes as they came down.”

The Russian fighter-bomber was shot down by Turkish F-16s after being repeatedly warned about violating Turkish airspace.

Media footage showed two parachutes floating to the ground before the aircraft crashed in a plume of smoke near the town of Bayir Bucak.

Russian warplanes previously violated Turkish airspace twice in October. The incidents came within a few days of the start of Russia’s air campaign in Syria on Sept. 30 and led to international condemnation.

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