Israel Matzav

Israeli drone 'almost' shot down over Turkey, but Turks fled instead

Turkish media reports claim that an Israeli Heron spy drone was 'almost' shot down over southern Turkey. But it's apparent from the reports that one reason it was not shot down was because Turkish forces fled.

"The Israeli 'Heron' drone was detected spying on military headquarters in Turkey's southern Hatay province," the report stated, adding that "the aircraft hovered over the Turkish forces in order to capture images of missile batteries and radar equipment."

A Turkish officer, who reportedly noticed a bright light in the sky, asked a senior sergeant to confirm the identity of the object. When they received confirmation, the soldiers abandoned their post for fear of an attack.

Meanwhile, the report claimed the Turkish radar continued to monitor the unmanned aerial vehicle, while the Turkish army waited for authorization to shoot it down.

The report stated that "by the time the order was given, the drone had already left the area."

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit refused to comment on the Turkish report.

There's video from a Turkish website here (sorry - I couldn't embed it).

Turkey's Today's Zaman reports that the drone was over Turkey for four hours.

An Israeli Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was observed spying above the 14th Hawk B. Brigade Command in Hatay’s Kırıkhan district for four hours, the Taraf daily claimed on Tuesday.

The aerial vehicle was hovering over the brigade command post in order to capture pictures of missile batteries and radar equipment.

According to the daily’s report, the Israeli drone was first noticed by a military lieutenant, who saw a white light flashing in the sky. Later he asked an air defense senior sergeant to verify what he had seen, who confirmed that a drone was hovering over the command post.

All the military personnel then left the post in preparation for a possible attack.

Radar followed the Israeli drone as military officials waited for the order to shoot it down. Higher ranked military officials did not reply to the radar center’s call before the drone moved out of range.

At the same time as the events in Hatay, the Diyarbakır 2nd Air Force Command Strike Center was also tracking the drone. Upon an insistent request of the Hatay command, the Diyarbakır command center sent two F-16 fighter jets to the region, where they tracked and followed the drones, and eventually returned to their base in Diyarbakır.

I hope we got a lot of nice, pretty pictures.

Heh.

Labels: Heron TP unmanned aerial system, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:50 AM