TURKISH PLANE SHOT DOWN BY MACHINE GUN NOT MISSILE

The Foreign Minister of Syria has said today that the Turkish plane that violated Syrian airspace on Friday was shot down with a land-based machine gun and not a missile. This is absolutely crucial because the machine gun has a much shorter range than a missile and explains why the plane fell in Syrian waters, even though the Turks said it was shot in international air space.

Makdessi pointed out that the Syrian anti-aircraft defense used a land-based anti-aircraft machinegun with a maximum range of 2.5 kilometers, and that the wreckage found by the Syrian authorities and delivered to the Turkish side with an official record shows holes in the tail-end of the plane which confirm that it was shot down by a ground-based machinegun, not missiles.

"Had the aircraft been over territorial waters, we would have used missiles, not a land-based anti-aircraft machinegun with a maximum range of 2.5 kilometers... all of this confirms the falsity of the allegations that the aircraft was shot down outside Syrian territorial waters," he said.

In response to Davutoglu's statement that the aircraft wasn't alerted, Makedessi said that the Syrian anti-air defenses operate automatically in such cases, and that even if the unidentified aircraft was Syrian, it would have been shot down in the same manner, adding that that machinegun that shot down the plane isn't equipped with radar; rather it had visual confirmation of it approaching it at a distance of 1 to 2 kilometers at an altitude of 100 meters and at a speed of 800 kph.

[source : Makdessi: Turkish Military Aircraft Violated Syria's Sovereignty, Syrian Response Was Defensive Act, SANA, http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2012/06/25/427549.htm, 25/06/2012]

This proves beyond doubt that the Turkish plane did not just temporarily violate Syrian air space but was well inside Syrian air space.

They are trying it on again. Houla. Qubair. Now this plane.

And perhaps there were no pilots. Did the pilots bail before sending the plane into Syrian air space? At 100m they would safely land in water. Or was it remote controlled? This is so obviously a provocation and trap that something beyond the normal must have happened with the pilots.