FOUR SHOT DOWN INTERNATIONL AIR PLANE INCIDENTS THAT SHOCKED US ALL

when we woke up in the morning of November 24^th 2015 to the news that one of Russia’s Sukhoi Su-24 bomber aircraft was shot down by a AIM-9X Sidewinder missile from a patrolling Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet near  the Syrian–Turkish border shortly after it violated turkeys airspace,
allot of questions were raised.  Among which were, how would Russia react? What old wound will this open? Would Russia take its pound on turkey a NATO ally? Probably a war action? Offcurse Russia-turkey relations got affected the very moment. Allot of statements from each sides, warnings, and sanctions both economic and political. We take a brief look of this and past international incidents involving the shooting down of aircrafts both civilian and military and the squabbles and reactions that resulted after.

               Kweilin incident(1938)

 

We go back as far as 1938, to the Kweilin incident which occurred on August 24, 1938 when a Douglas DC-2 airliner (the Kweilin) carrying 18 passengers and crew was destroyed by Japanese aircraft in China. It was the first civilian airliner in history to be shot down by hostile aircraft. It was later believed to be an assassination attempt on Chinese President Sun Yat-sen's only son, Sun Fo, who was thought to be aboard the flight but was not. The plane was refurbished, renamed The Chungking, and was later involved in a 1940 shootdown incident. (Wikipedia)

  

Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114-(1973)

Another on our list is the Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114, a regularly scheduled flight from Tripoli, Libya, via Benghazi to Cairo. On February 21, 1973, the Boeing 727 left Tripoli, but became lost with a combination of bad weather and equipment failure over northern Egypt around 13:44 (local). It entered Israeli-controlled airspace over the Sinai Peninsula, was intercepted by two Israeli F-4 Phantom II fighters, refused to land, and was shot down. Of the 113 people on board, 5 survived, including the co-pilot. Israel's air force claimed that Flight 114 was suspected to be undertaking an aerial spy mission over the Israeli air base at Bir Gifgafa. Israel's Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, called it an "error of judgment", and Israel paid compensation to the victims' families. (Wikipedia).

                  Malaysia Airlines Flight 17-(2014)

 

The incident is the deadliest airliner shootdown incident to date. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17/MAS17) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur that crashed on 17 July 2014 after being shot down. Ponomarev said in an interview for German Die Welt that there's no doubts that it was the separatists who shot down the plane by mistake and "Putin now understood that he has passed the weapon to wrong people” Minutes after the incident, Ukraine closed all routes in Eastern Ukrainian airspace, at all altitudes. The incident dramatically heightened fears about airliner shootdowns, leading to a number of airlines announcing they would avoid overflying conflict zones. Picture above, is a mobile Buk surface-to-air missile launcher, similar to that concluded to have been used in the incident.

 Ukraine Sukhoi Su-25-(2014)

Unfortunately the downing of the Ukrainian Su-25 would be one many in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. On 23 Jul 2014 the Ukrainian Su-25 had been hit by a missile at about 19:00 (16:00 GMT). Ukraine also alleges rockets were fired at its forces from Russian territory however claims from rebels in eastern Ukraine say they shot down two Su-25 jets. Amateur video posted on Wednesday is said to show a plane being hit over Ukraine's eastern region of Luhansk. Its pilot managed to eject and was rescued by Ukrainian forces. Russia's defence ministry called the accusation "absurd", Russian state media reported. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered his foreign ministry to react officially. Ukraine's defence ministry said: "It is likely that [the hit] was carried out by air-to-air rockets from the Russian air force which were patrolling the border in a pair." A Russian spokesman said Ukraine's claims were "absurd, just like all the previous accusations from Kiev's leadership against Russia's defence ministry", RIA news agency reported (BBC)

photo credit(Wikipedia)