Newsademic British English edition 260

u s s ia n
 
p l a n e
 
sh o o td o w n
Three months ago Russia sent planes, 
attack helicopters and soldiers to 
Syria. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s 
president, declared that these forces 
would support Syria’s president, B a­
shir al-Assad, and his country’s army. 
Currently, the Syrian army is fighting 
against several opposition groups as 
well as the Islamic State (IS).
On 24th November two Russian 
Su-24 bomber planes were attacking 
an opposition group in north west 
Syria. The planes were flying very 
close to the Syrian-Turkish border. 
Two Turkish fighter je t aircraft were 
close by. A missile fired by a Turkish 
plane hit one o f the Russian bomb­
ers. It burst into flames. The Russian 
pilot and his navigator ejected from 
the plane. Their parachutes opened 
and they began to float down to the 
ground. Soon afterwards the dam­
aged Russian plane crashed inside 
Syria and exploded.
The Russian airmen landed in dif­
ferent places. Fighters from the oppo­
sition group shot and killed the pilot 
before he reached the ground. Rus­
sian rescue helicopters took o ff from
a military base in Syria. They set out 
to search for the Russian airmen. The 
gunmen from the opposition group 
fired at one helicopter and killed a 
soldier on board. This helicopter was 
forced to make an emergency land­
ing. Later, soldiers from the Syrian 
army managed to find the surviving 
Russian airman and rescue him.
Russian Su-24 b o m b e r warplane, s im ila r to the
one sh o t down b y Turkish fig h ter je t aircraft
The shooting down o f the Russian 
plane has caused a big argument be­
tween Russia and Turkey. Soon after 
the incident M r Putin spoke on R us­
sian television. He was very angry. 
M r Putin accused Turkey o f ‘commit­
ting a crime’. Turkish officials insist­
ed that the Russian planes crossed the 
Syrian-Turkish border into Turkish 
airspace. The Turkish pilots said that 
they had warned the Russian planes 
to change course ten times. However, 
they also admitted that the Russian 
bomber had flown inside Turkish air­
space for only 17 seconds.
Russian air force officials insisted 
that their planes were at least one 
kilometre (0.6 miles) from the bor­
der. The airman who survived the 
attack was navigating the plane. He 
claimed that he and the pilot had not 
received any warnings from the Turk­
ish j et planes. He also insisted that his 
plane had not crossed the border.
Turkey is also involved in the 
Syrian War. Like Russia, it opposes 
the IS. However, it refuses to sup­
port Syria’s president. It also backs 
some of the opposition groups

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