Greek, Turkish jets collide in interception moves
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek and Turkish warplanes which collided in mid-air on Tuesday were shadowing each other above the Greek island of Karpathos in the southeastern Aegean Sea, the Greek defense ministry said.
"The planes collided during interception maneuvers above Karpathos," a defense ministry official said. "We don't know what has happened to the pilots yet," he told Reuters.
The Greek plane was an F-16 but it was not clear what type of Turkish plane had crashed.
The Turkish defense ministry was not immediately available to comment on the incident.
There were no scheduled military exercises in the area, Greek officials said.
A search and rescue operation was immediately mounted.
"Several Super Puma rescue helicopters are on their way to the area," a Greek government official told Reuters.
A frigate was also ordered to sail toward Karpathos to take part in the search and rescue operation.
Rivals Greece and Turkey regularly criticize each other for causing mock dogfights between warplanes over the Aegean sea.
Greece's defense ministry says it daily scrambles several fighter jets to intercept Turkish jets that it claims have invaded its air space.
The two countries, who came close to war as recently as 1996, have considerably improved ties but have not resolved territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea and over the divided island of Cyprus.
Resumen en cristiano.
Han chocado en vuelo mientras ambos aparatos estaban realizando maniobras de interceptación en la zona de la isla de Karpathos. El griego era un F-16, se desconoce de momento que modelo de aparato era el turco. Se desconoce el estado de los pilotos. (Espero que hayan podido eyectarse). Han partido Super pumas y una fragata griegos en busca de supervivientes.
Los turcos de momento no han dicho ni mu.