Turkey shoots down Russian Jet

Russian aircraft haven't actually invaded British air space, they just fly very close to the line and we choose to go out and monitor them. It's part of the game.
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But if they did cross the border [probably even after given warnings], what should be the reasonable thing for the RAF to do?

Actually, not an act of war if it was in the wrong airspace, but hey, I haven't read all the articles yet. I'm gonna hide in my nuclear bunker now..

But if they did cross the border [probably even after given warnings], what should be the reasonable thing for the RAF to do?

Either shoot them down or escort them to a British base and impound them. Both would be reasonable.

The Russians have shot down perfectly innocent airliners on the grounds they were on spying missions, so shooting down a trespassing fighter or bomber is perfectly easily justified.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007

Illegally infringing national borders is an act of war, various international laws give us the right to shoot down an aircraft doing that. Escorting it in and impounding it is a nice notion, but you can't force an aircraft to land. You can force an aircraft to crash, but that's not the same thing...

Such a decision would ultimately be taken by the PM.

You think Cameron will do it?

You think Cameron will do it?

"Will" makes it sound like it's going to happen tomorrow.

Would he do it? He'd probably find every way he could to avoid it, which isn't exactly the worst trait in a politician given the circumstances. After that, don't know. Never met the guy, I'd only be guessing.

"Will" makes it sound like it's going to happen tomorrow.

Would he do it? He'd probably find every way he could to avoid it, which isn't exactly the worst trait in a politician given the circumstances. After that, don't know. Never met the guy, I'd only be guessing.

It is almost certainly not in his hands - I'd be surprised if it were. The RAF's rules of engagement for such incursions will cover the situation and lay down a procedure to follow for the pilots concerned and their command, and this would end up in engagement if the Russian didn't back off in time.

The government would then be informed of what had happened.

You can't have such a time-critical situation dependent on whether one man is in an important meeting or on the toilet.

I was thinking of Thatcher when I wrote it.

If she's still the PM, she will definitely do it.

They had apprently been warned as they approached the Turkish border, and then fired on when they crossed it. They could easily have given 10 or so warnings.

Yeah I saw this today.

I think it is most likely a navigation error. The flight path is heading in a straight line across Syria for quite a few miles and seems to catch a tiny corner of Turkey that sticks out into Syria.

The pilots probably heard the warnings but thought they were fine on their flight path. It seems the surviving pilot is denying warnings were made so either they didn't reach him or he's lying to save face.

Sorry to pop your bubble. Nato will never kick turkey out due to its strategic location. US needs turkey. Guess where were nukes planted during the cuba crisis.

The western political institutions don't exist to uphold freedom and democracy values. It exists to serve its own interests. Thats how saudi arabia gets a free pass on its abuse of human rights, so will turkey.

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The whole escalating war will not be able to stop at defeating ISIL. The US will have to re-assess it's unacceptable symbiotic relationship with Saudi Arabia and more and more people are cottoning on to how Turkey is supporting ISIL and Islamic jihad. Turkey has to go, so does Saudi. That is how it is looking to me. The enemy is not just ISIL. Despite all the lies telling people Turkey is in Nato so we can't go against them, Saudi has oil so we have to tolerate them, Russia is the enemy of the West and not to be trusted, the heroic Kurdish frontline forces and now Russia are the only ones taking this fight seriously. Hopefully the West will wake up. It seems they are beginning to do so, thank God.

Turkey did this because they're allied to ISIS. Simple. The benefits of such a relationship are just too massive, economically, for Turkey to pass up.

Turkey did this because the Russian jet violated Turkish airspace.

It's not like the Turks actively went and hunted down a Russian jet that was striking IS.


And even if they did want to go and hunt, judging by the recent activity of the Russians, IS territory wouldn't be the first place to look.