On 24 November 2015, a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M attack aircraft near the Syria–Turkey border. According to Turkey, the aircraft was fired upon while in Turkish airspace because it violated the border up to a depth of 2.19 kilometres (1.36 miles) for about 17 seconds after being warned to change its heading ten times over a period of five minutes before entering the airspace. The Russian Defence Ministry denied that the aircraft ever left Syrian airspace, claiming that their satellite data showed that the Sukhoi was about 1,000 metres (1,100 yd) inside Syrian airspace when it was shot down.
The U.S. State Department said that the U.S. independently confirmed that the aircraft's flight path violated Turkish territory, and that the Turks gave multiple warnings to the pilot, to which they received no response and released audio recordings of the warnings they had broadcast. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pointed out that Turkey had the right to defend its airspace. Although Russian president Vladimir Putin said that the U.S. knew the flight path of the Russian jet and should have informed Turkey, two U.S. officials said that Russia had not informed the U.S. military of its jet's flight plan.
The Russian pilot and navigator both ejected from the aircraft. The navigator, Konstantin Murakhtin, was rescued, but pilot Oleg Peshkov was shot and killed by Syrian rebel ground fire while descending by parachute. A Russian marine from the search and rescue team launched to retrieve the two airmen was also killed when a rescue helicopter was targeted by the rebels.
The incident was the first destruction of a Russian or Soviet Air Forces warplane by a NATO member state since an attack on the Sui-ho Dam during the Korean War in 1953. Reactions to the incident included denunciation from Russia and an attempt to defuse the situation by NATO afterwards. Russia deployed the guided missile cruiser Moskva armed with S-300F (SA-N-6 Grumble) long-range SAM missiles off the Syrian coast near Latakia and S-400 (SA-21 Growler) mobile SAM systems to Khmeimim airbase. In response, the Turkish Armed Forces deployed the KORAL land-based radar electronic support system in Hatay Province along the Turkish–Syrian border.
Background
After the 2012 shooting down of a Turkish RF-4E Phantom II jet by Syrian forces, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan protested, saying that brief incursions should not trigger an attack, pointing out that Turkey did not shoot down Syrian helicopters that strayed into Turkish airspace. Nevertheless, as a response to the event he announced that Turkey changed its rules of engagement, and said it would start to consider all "military elements" approaching from Syria an enemy threat and would act accordingly. Subsequently, Turkey shot down a Syrian Mi-17 helicopter in September 2013 and a MiG-23 warplane in March 2014.
Russia was one of several countries directly involved in the Syrian conflict. On 30 September 2015, Russia began its air campaign in support of the SAA against Syrian rebels.
In early October, Turkey and NATO protested against what they saw as Russia's deliberate violations of Turkish airspace. The Russian defence ministry admitted that a Russian Su-30 aircraft had entered Turkish airspace "for a few seconds" because of bad weather, adding that measures had been taken to prevent a repeat of such incidents, however Turkish radar had tracked the aircraft straying into Turkish airspace for up to 8 km (5 mi). From 3–15 October, five discussions between senior ranking officials from Turkey and Russia occurred, concerning Turkish rules of engagement and Russian violations of Turkish airspace. On 6 November 2015, six U.S. Air Force F-15C fighters were deployed by US European Command from the 48th Fighter Wing at their Lakenheath base in Britain to Incirlik Air Base as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The government of Turkey requested these to secure the sovereignty of Turkish airspace because of earlier repeated Russian intrusions into Turkish airspace.
On 19 November, Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov and the Russian military attaché, Colonel Andrei Victorovich Dovger, were summoned by Turkey. Russia, which was criticised by Turkey for having conducted operations near the Turkish border, a region inhabited by Syrian Turkmen and largely free of ISIL (though al-Nusra Front, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, was present in the region), was notified that Turkey's rules of engagement were in place and it would react to any violations of its border security. Turkey also warned Russia that it would not be indifferent to "attacks targeting the life security of Turkmen" in the Bayırbucak area. The preceding week Turkey had called for the UN Security Council to discuss attacks against Turkish-backed Turkmens. Approximately 1,700 people had fled the area in the previous three days due to battles between Syrian government forces and anti-government Syrian Turkmen and al-Nusra Front fighters. Russia had bombed the area near the Turkish border to support Syrian government forces. Syrian Turkmen formed their own armed brigades called Syrian Turkmen Brigades in opposition to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, loosely affiliated with other rebels such as the Free Syrian Army. The Turkmen brigades also cooperated with al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the al-Nusra Front and with the Salafi coalition known as Ahrar al-Sham. In Latakia, the Turkish-supported rebels formed the Jabal al-Turkman Brigade.
The shootdown
On 24 November 2015 at 9:24 am local time (7:24 am GMT), as it was returning to Khmeimim airbase, a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 aircraft with tail number 83 white and registration number RF-90932 was shot down near the Syrian–Turkish border by a missile from a patrolling Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet. Later analysis suggested that a radar-guided, medium range AIM-120 AMRAAM was fired from between 14–19 kilometres (9–12 mi) away. The Economist reported that the two Su-24s were on their way to strike Syrian Turkmen targets. Syrian government forces supported by the Shiite militias and the Russian Air Force were fighting against Syrian Turkmen brigades, Army of Conquest and al-Nusra Front fighters.
Early reports from Russian news agencies, citing the Russian Defence Ministry, indicated that the aircraft had been downed by a ground-based strike from Syrian Turkmen rebels, but they later confirmed Turkish reports that the aircraft had been shot down by Turkish fighter jets. The Turkish military released a graphic of the Russian aircraft's flight pattern, which shows it crossing the southern tip of Hatay Province before being shot down and crashing near Turkmen Mountain. Russia then countered Turkey's radar trace analysis by publishing a different flight map showing no airspace violation. Three days later, on 27 November, Russia published another map.
According to Turkey's statement to the UN Security Council, two aircraft, whose nationalities were unknown at the time, violated Turkish airspace up to a depth of 2.19 km (1.36 mi) for about 17 seconds. According to Turkish officials, the aircraft were given 10 warnings within the span of 5 minutes, by operators at a ground-controlled interception station, to change their course. Turkey later released the audio recording ("The unknown air traffic position to Humaymim 020 radial 26 miles. This is Turkish Air Force speaking on Guard. You are approaching Turkish airspace, change your heading south immediately"). The Russians claim there were no warnings. Analysts have noted that Turkey's warnings were issued on a dedicated mutually-agreed radio channel, which was the international Guard (emergency) channel (243.0 MHz), but the R-862M radio fitted to the Su-24M is not able to monitor this channel without optional equipment, which may not have been installed. According to Turkey, one aircraft left Turkish national airspace after violating it; the other aircraft was fired upon by Turkish F-16s patrolling the area and crashed into Syrian territory after being hit in Turkish airspace. Based on its heat signature, an anonymous American official stated that the jet was hit in Syrian airspace after a short incursion into Turkey. On 30 November, US ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute stated that the data supported the Turkish version of events.
According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Su-24 was downed from an altitude of 6,000 metres (20,000 ft) within one kilometre of the Turkish border and in Syrian airspace, while returning to the Khmeimim airbase in Syria. Russia has maintained that the aircraft never left Syrian territory. The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the aircraft was an Su-24 but said that it had proof the jet was within Syrian airspace. According to the commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Viktor Bondarev, a Turkish F-16 entered Syria's airspace for 40 seconds and flew 2 km (1.2 mi) inside Syrian territory, and the Russian warplane did not violate the Turkish border.
Casualties
Both pilots ejected after the aircraft was hit. Initially, the deputy commander of a Turkmen Syrian opposition rebel brigade in Syria, Alparslan Çelik (a Turkish citizen and member of the Grey Wolves ultra-nationalist group), claimed his forces had shot dead the two pilots as they descended with parachutes, and in a film a person could be heard in the background repeatedly shouting "Stop shooting!" in Turkish as the parachutists descended. A Turkish official reported that he believed both were alive. It was also reported that one of the pilots had been captured by the Turkmen fighters and a video was circulated which allegedly showed the pilot's body.
Russia's military general staff spokesman Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoi confirmed that one pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Anatolyevich Peshkov, was killed by ground fire; the weapons systems operator was rescued.
The shooting of an ejecting aircraft pilot is in contravention of Article 42 of the 1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, yet, Protocol I applies only to interstate armed conflict (i.e., fighting between opposing states) and no international humanitarian law prohibited such practice in a non-interstate conflict (i.e., fighting between state forces and non-state armed groups). In other words, while shooting down the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 by Turkey fell under the context of interstate conflict, the killing of the parachuting pilot was caused by a non-state armed group and therefore fell under the context of non-interstate conflict.
The pilot of the Su-24, Oleg Peshkov, 45, was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation, the country's highest military honour; the surviving weapons systems officer, Konstantin Murakhtin, and the deceased rescuer, Alexander Pozynich, 29, received the Order of Courage. On 2 December Peshkov was buried with full military honours in the Alley of Heroes of the cemetery in Lipetsk with about 10,000 people attending.
Search and rescue
The Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency showed video footage of the aircraft crashing and the two pilots parachuting down. Russian helicopters conducted low-altitude combat search and rescue flights in the area to look for the pilot.
Two Mil Mi-8 helicopters were sent to find and recover the pilots from the crash site. One of the helicopters was damaged by small-arms fire from Syrian Turkmen Brigade militants, resulting in the death of a naval infantryman, and was forced to make an emergency landing. All the surviving crew of the helicopter were later rescued and evacuated. The Free Syrian Army's 1st Coastal Division claimed that they subsequently destroyed the abandoned helicopter using a US-made BGM-71 TOW missile.
As the Russian Armed Forces began planning an operation to extract the pilot, the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani contacted them and proposed a joint rescue operation under his supervision. The rescue team which General Soleimani put forth consisted of eight Hezbollah special forces personnel and 18 Syrian commandos, who were trained by Iran and had firsthand knowledge of the geography of the area, with Russia providing transport, logistical support, air cover and satellite intelligence. One of the pilots, Oleg Peshkov, had been wounded and then killed by rebels after parachuting from the plane, while the other one, Konstantin Murahtin, escaped and was rescued. During the rescue mission a Russian Marine, Alexandr Pozynich, had been fatally wounded. The rescue team returned to base safely and handed over the pilot to the Syrian Army. Vladimir Putin was reportedly closely following the operation. The body of the dead pilot was flown to Turkey and Russian officials in Ankara arranged for its repatriation to Moscow.
Aftermath
On 25 November, the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey spoke for an hour by telephone, and both governments stated that day that they would not initiate a war as a result of the incident. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists that his country would "seriously reevaluate" its relationship with Turkey. The Russian Defence Ministry broke off military contacts with the Turkish Armed Forces and Russian defence officials said that future airstrikes in Syria would be escorted by fighters. According to the Russian Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu, Russia would deploy S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Khmeimim airbase in Syria, where the Russian Aerospace Forces group was stationed.