Turkey shoots down Russian aircraft.

[Bilge_Rat]

The facts are still, to a certain extent, murky.

There is also a controversy over the 5 minutes of radio warning.

The Turks broadcast warnings over the emergency "guard" channel. Several other ACs in the area heard it and a recording can be found on the net.

Problem is that for a technical reason, the radios on the Russian SU-24s are apparently unable to monitor this "Guard" channel.

In mid-october, a Russian military delegation went to Turkey and a special channel for such warning calls was agreed upon. This is apparently the same procedure agreed to between the U.S. and Russia.

Turkey is also claiming it made the warnings on this "special channel" and that recordings of it exist, but none have been released so far.

So the question still stands, did the Turks really warn the Russian planes? The Russians claim it was an ambush, but it just could as easily be a combination of incompetence and inflexible ROEs on the part of Turkey.