Turkish F-16 jet damaged beyond repair after dogfighting with Greek pilot

SOURCE: GREEKCITYTIMES

At the peak of tensions between Greece and Turkey in the East Mediterranean, the 40-year-old Greek frigate Limnos significantly damaged the Kemal Reis, the flagship of the Turkish Navy that was violating Greece’s maritime space whilst escorting the Oruç Reis research vessel.

However, as previously reported, only days after the Limnos severely damaged the Kemal Reis, specifically on August 20, a pair of Turkish F-16 fighter jets attempted to intervene in a Greek military exercise between the Army and the Air Force that was taking place close to the island of Rhodes. The Greek Air Force once again showed why their pilots are superior and why they have won in consecutive years NATO’s “Best Warrior” awards when they allowed the Turkish pair to penetrate deep into Greece’s airspace before appearing out of nowhere and trapping the Turkish jets in a pincer movement.

The Turkish pilots, especially the second pilot of the pair, panicked and in a rush returned to Dalaman airport low on fuel.

According to newer information revealed by Defense Point, one of the two Turkish fighters landed with the engine out of operation, which made it even more difficult for the pilot to control the fighter jet during the landing phase.

The pilot could not land the aircraft normally and it ended up in a ditch off the runway.

According to Defense Point, the pilot was not injured and came out of the fighter jet safely.

The same could not be said for the Turkish fighter jet however, which suffered serious material damage, so-much-so that the repair costs was not worth restoring the fighter jet to flight condition.

Considering that the cost of buying an F-16C Block40/50/50 Adv fighter jet is several tens of millions of dollars, then one realizes that the Greek-Turkish crisis was an extremely costly affair for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, and not only to fuel Turkey’s warships and war jets, but also the repair costs of the Kemal Reis and the loss of a fighter jet.

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