Greek, Turkish Fighter Jets Collide

A Greek and a Turkish warplane collided over the Aegean Sea island of Karpathos as they shadowed each other Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said.

Greek and Turkish fighter planes frequently intercept each other over the Aegean, mostly in areas of disputed airspace.

"It appears the incident occurred while the Greek plane was intercepting the Turkish jet," government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said.

The Turkish military issued a statement identifying both planes as F-16 fighter jets. It said the Turkish pilot, 1st Lt. Lieutenant Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, was rescued unhurt by a merchant ship. Greek authorities said a search was under way for the pilot of the Greek plane.

Greece says its national airspace extends to 10 miles, but Turkey recognizes only six miles — the same distance as territorial waters. Long-standing disputes over airspace and territorial rights in the Aegean have nearly led to three wars between the two NATO allies since 1974.

Relations between Greece and Turkey have been steadily deteriorating in recent months, despite Athens' promotion of Turkey's candidacy to join the European Union and Premier Costas Caramanalis' personal friendship with Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey's Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said his country's chief of staff was in contact with his Greek counterpart over the incident.

"As the obstruction was taking place an F-16 belonging to the Turkish Air Forces crashed in the air with an F-16 belonging to the Greek Air Forces and both planes fell," the Turkish military said, adding that the incident was under investigation.

The Greek Defense Ministry said the planes crashed into the sea 12½ miles south of Karpathos.

The Greek jet was based at Souda Air Force base on the island of Crete.

By Derek Gatopoulos