Reports are surfacing that Syria may have shot down a Turkish fighter jet over Syrian waters in the Mediterranean Sea. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
By NBC News and news services
Office of Turkey's prime minister said late Friday that?Syria?downed a Turkish F-4 air force jet?over the Mediterranean.
Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told?reporters at a news conference covered by NBC?News he could not say whether the plane had crashed or been shot down.
He said he had no word on the fate of the plane's?two airmen.
"The chief of general staff has made the necessary statement about the missing plane. I am not saying it was brought down at the point it fell. It is not possible to say this without knowing the exact facts," Erdogan told a news conference.
Turkish ships and helicopters were searching for the airmen in cooperation with Syrian vessels, Erdogan?said.
He said he wasn't aware of any Syrian claims of responsibility for bringing down the plane or of earlier reports that?Syrian authorities had apologized.?
Earlier, Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar television station said?that Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish military aircraft, quoting Syrian security sources.?
"Syrian security sources confirmed to a Manar correspondent in Damascus that Syrian defense forces shot down the Turkish fighter jet," a news flash on the Beirut-based station said.??
Pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen television station, which is based in Lebanon, also quoted what it said were Turkish sources as saying a jet had been shot down by Syrian air defenses.
Turkey -- a member of NATO -- earlier said it had lost contact with a plane while it was over the sea off the southeastern coast, and a television station said it had crashed in Syrian territorial waters.?
In a statement, Turkey's military said a search and rescue operation was under way. It lost radar and radio contact with the plane after it took off from Erhac Airport in the eastern province of Malatya.?
Two crew were aboard the F-4 at the time of the crash, the Turkish state news agency Anatolia said on its website, citing Malatya governor Ulvi Saran.?
The Hurriyet daily newspaper reported that the plane had gone down in international waters and that the two airmen had been found alive and well following a search operation by Turkish forces.?
The Chief of General Staff declined to comment further on the incident beyond the written statement.?
Turkish warplanes regularly patrol along and off Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast.?
This article includes reporting by Reuters.
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