Turkish Navy Helicopter flying over a Greek island at 65m altitude

Turkish Navy Helicopter flying over a Greek island at 65m altitude


On Tuesday, a Turkish S-70B6 Seahawk helicopter flew over the Greek island of Ro at an altitude of just 65 meters! This is a new provocation in the area of the island of Kastelorizo, more serious compared to the overflight of two Turkish RF-4E fighter jets over Kastelorizo at 300m altitude two months ago.

The helicopter did not take off from the nearby Turkish naval base of Aksaz, but from the air base in Dalaman which is well north. This is important: It is clear that a surprise was attempted. A Navy helicopter solo flight from Aksaz towards the south region of Kastelorizo, would be directly observed by the Greek Air Defense system.

A flight from Dalaman Airport to the south can have a variety of destinations, but due to the distance, almost never reach the island of Kastelorizo and the cluster of islands and islets in the region (Ro, Stroggyli, etc). In this case the helicopter was on the Greek early warning radar system, but became a concern when it moved just 10 miles before reaching the sea.



The helicopter entered the Athens FIR without filing a flight plan.The overflight at an altitude of 200 feet (65 meters) took place at 15:24. The Turkish helicopter left the Greek National Airspace and the Greek FIR before the Greek jet fighters that were scrambled for the interception reached the area.

In another incident later on Tuesday, six Turkish planes entered Greek airspace without submitting flight plans on Monday evening. The six aircraft entered the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) between the islands of Lesvos and Chios, a short distance from the western Anatolian coast line. Two infringements of air traffic regulations on the Athens FIR were recorded that later developed into 5 violations of national airspace. The Turkish planes were chased out by Greek fighter jets and promptly left the Athens FIR at about 8.40pm.