Regardless of the upcoming annual Greek-Turkish High-Level Cooperation Council that is scheduled for December 5 and 6 in Athens, Greece, tension between the two countries remains high. Earlier today, two Turkish F-16 fighter jets unjustly chased a Greek Civil Aviation aircraft that was flying within Athens’ FIR over Psara island in the Eastern Aegean Sea. The chasing continued for several minutes until the Greek aircraft was driven over the island of Mykonos and ended with a dogfight after the intervention of two Greek F-16 jets that chased off the Turkish. The Greek jet pilots also transmitted to the flight control that they were put in risk due to dangerous maneuvers by the Turkish fighters. At the time of the episode, Greek National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias was in a very small distance from the spot, as he was traveling from the nearby island of Chios to Psara and he confirmed the episode, revealing that the Greek civil aircraft was on a scheduled flight in order to test the radio transmitters of the Civil Aviation network. According to sources of the Turkish Air Force, the “warm” incident occurred due to a misunderstanding and the Turkish fighter pilot will be led to disciplinary proceedings. Minutes after the incident, Tactical Air Force Commander, Air Marshal Christos Vaitsis contacted his Turkish counterpart through the “red line” and the latter apologized for the incident.
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