Turkish and Greek fighter planes collide in mid air

Two fighter planes, a Turkish F-16 plane and a Greek F-16 collided in mid air and crashed into the Aegean Sea.The location of the crash is approximately 10 miles east of Karpathos, a Greek island in the southern part of the Aegean Sea.br /Yiannis Papageorgiou a spokesman for the Greek Air Force says that the Greek F-16 was dispatched to intercept and identify the Turkish plane that according to Papageorgiou was violating the Athens Flight Information Region, when the two planes collided.br /The Greek Defense Ministry said earlier “the planes collided during interception manoeuvres above Karpathos. We don’t know what has happened to the Greek pilot yet.” A passing merchant ship rescued the Turkish pilot, Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, who refused to be rescued by Greek frogmen. The Greek pilot was killed in the incident.br /Vecdi Gonul, Defense Minister for the Turkish government released a partial statement saying, “we’re still waiting for definite information and our Chief of Staff is speaking to the Greek Chief of Staff.”br /Puma helicopters as well as rescue personnel have been dispatched to the area.br /When the event became known, Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gül communicated immediately with his counterpart, Dora Bakoyiannis in order to have a first conversation regarding the fighter planes’ crash.br /Both countries disagree on the boundaries of their airspace over the sea and fighters sometimes conduct mock dogfights in the area between the two countries.