A Greek and a Turkish F-16 fighter planes collided in mid-air yesterday over the southern part of the Aegean Sea, within a territory whose control has been much disputed by the two NATO allies.


Officials from both countries gave quite different accounts of what happened, since both of them had been fighting over that particular airspace, and they were both eager to limit damages to ties which have been improving in the past six years.

A Turkish official stated that the collision was caused by the Greek fighter jet, which had interfered with Turkish maneuvers conducted within the international airspace.

On the other hand, Greece stated that two Greek fighter planes were upset by two Turkish F-16s and an RF-4 one had trespassed what Athens administration labeled as "flight information region" over the Aegean Sea, then moved farther away towards Crete.

The crash occurred 34 km southeast of the island of Karpathos, at an altitude of 8,000 meters.

While the Turkish Foreign Minister stated that it had discovered with tremendous sadness that "the Greek pilot lost his life", the Greek government announced that rescue efforts would still continue and the pilot would be considered as missing for at least 72 hours, after which he would be declared dead.

A Greek official declared that the Turkish pilot was saved by a foreign commercial ship after he had ejected from his seat and then he was transferred to a Turkish military helicopter. He had refused to board a Greek rescue helicopter.