Turkish Air Force and RAF almost clash

It's a slightly misleading headline, but not much. Apparently there is some tension between the Turkish Government and the UK forces operating on Cyprus. Turkey has occupied a portion of Cyprus, and lays claim to an airport on the island, which houses a Turkish F-16 squadron.

On September 2nd two RAF Typhoons were scrambled to intercept unidentified aircraft in the region. Apparently they overflew the occupied portion of the island to do so. This led to Turkey scrambling F-16s, although from Incirlik, instead of Cyprus. By the time they arrived in the area, the RAF Typhoons had returned to Cyprus and landed.

Interestingly, there is this NOTAM about Cyprus:

NAVIGATIONAL WARNING TO ALL CONCERNED REFERENCE IS MADE TO TURKISH NOTAM A2652/05 AND WISH TO STATE THAT THE SO-CALLED ERCAN AIRPORT (LCEN) IS AN UNAUTHORISED AIRPORT OPERATING IN THE OCCUPIED BY TURKEY NORTHERN PART OF THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS (CYPRUS AIC A06/02 REFERS). CYPRUS GOVERNMENT AS THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY AND THE ONLY RECOGNISED GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER REGISTERED ABBREVIATION CODE LCEN WITH ICAO. THEREFORE THIS CODE AND THIS ILLEGAL AIRPORT SHOULD NOT BE USED. 24 NOV 14:30 2005 UNTIL PERM. CREATED: 24 NOV 14:53 2005

theaviationist.com...

johngaltfla.com...

Any more info on the unidentified craft that causec it?

reply to post by Zaphod58


I suppose this is a hint that Cyprus is sided with Syria, Russia, China, Iran in the upcoming WW3?

reply to post by Happy1


Not at all. There is a lot of allied equipment at Cyprus right now. But there is a small portion of the island that is held by Turkey. You're not supposed to overfly that without their permission, which the Typhoons didn't have.

reply to post by crazyewok


There's very little information about it at all right now. I'm still trying to find out more, and will update if I can find anything.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Whose side is Turkey on? Syria / Russia or lone star U.S.?

reply to post by darkbake


Normally the US. In this instance though they were responding to what was essentially an intrusion into their airspace by foreign aircraft.

reply to post by Zaphod58


somebody up to no good flying an unregistered flight?
israeli black ops perhaps?
or somebody f'd up and got seen on the way back from supplying al-cani-bal with more war toys

reply to post by TheMagus


Or just someone missing a radio or transponder switch, which happens a lot. We used to launch alert aircraft at least once a month on average, sometimes two or three times, for people that missed a switch.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thanks, that makes sense.

reply to post by crazyewok


Two Syrian Su-24s that were picked up by an E-3D flying in the area monitoring the region. They weren't responding to RAF Akrotiri, so the two Typhoons were scrambled before they entered the 14 mile exclusion zone.

Cyprus has Turkish, UK, Greek forces. a small UN force plus both Official military of Cyprus plus other Military of Cyprus in the Turkish enclave. Honestly suprised this does not happen more often. Although not a part of NATO Cyprus is shared by 3 NATO powers.