Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Greek Fighter Jet Crashes After Encounter With Turkish Aircraft, Officials Say

ATHENS — A Greek Air Force jet crashed into the Aegean Sea on Thursday, killing the pilot, as he returned from a mission to intercept Turkish aircraft that had violated the country’s airspace, Greek officials said.

The Turkish government did not comment publicly about the accusations of an encounter. The state-run Anadolu news agency quoted unnamed military officials as disputing scattered reports that there had been a dogfight between jets from the two countries and denying that any Turkish Air Force jet had been in the area.

Greek officials said nothing about what might have caused the crash, or whether it was connected to a confrontation with Turkish jets, though they stressed that the crash occurred several kilometers from the site of the interception mission.

The Hellenic Air Force identified the pilot as Capt. Giorgos Baltadoros, 33, a father of two children, and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos described him on Twitter as a “hero who fell defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

An official at the Greek Defense Ministry said the jet was returning from a mission to intercept two Turkish F-16 jets farther east, near the Greek island of Lesbos.

“The mission had finished and it had been on its way back with another Greek plane,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Close encounters between Greek and Turkish aircraft are common in the Aegean, which is flanked by Greece to the west and Turkey to the east, and where the traditional foes have engaged in lingering territorial disputes.

Air patrols in the Aegean and interceptions of Turkish aircraft that Greece considered to be in its airspace have spiked in recent weeks, increasing friction between the neighbors, both members of NATO. Greece said its troops fired tracer rounds on Monday night as a warning after a Turkish helicopter with its lights off flew close to the Greek islet of Ro in the southern Aegean.

The conflicts have escalated at a time of high tension on Turkey’s southeastern flank, along its border with Syria. Turkey, Iran and Russia are deeply entwined in the complex civil war, Israel has struck at Syrian and Iranian targets, and the United States and its allies are weighing strikes against the Syrian government for suspected use of chemical weapons.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Intercepting Jets, Airman Dies in Aegean. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT