What happened during the Quadripartite Aeronautical Exercise “EUNOMIA 3-22”
The attempt to harass Greek F-16 fighters during the “EUNOMIA” exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean had a negative development for a Turkish pilot, in the wake of the tension in Greek-Turkish relations.
As broadcast by the program “Morning Greece”, last Thursday (6/10), during the conclusion of the Quadrilateral Aeronautical Exercise with the name “EUNOMIA 3-22”, which took place in the Eastern Mediterranean, within the framework of the Coordinated Quadrilateral Initiative QUAD Greece , France, Italy and Cyprus, a closed formation of four armed Greek F-16 fighters suddenly appeared flying east in the Nicosia FIR, within NAVTEX-engaged sectors for the exercise.
The quartet flew at very low altitude from Crete to Cyprus and when the Turkish air defenses became aware of it when the fighters appeared in the Nicosia FIR, east of Limassol, during the climax of the exercise.
In fact, although there was the thought of making crossings over the Megalonisos, in the end they did not proceed since the purpose of the flight was different and it would not be at all elegant to the allies to give the impression that we are using them to promote our own agenda.
According to the same source, the Turks, seeing the Greek F-16s, took off two fighters in order to intercept them. They did not know that there were four Greek fighters, since the closed formation they were flying showed them on the radar for a pair. Except that Greek fighters had already taken off from Crete, waiting for the Turks.
Thus, as soon as the Turkish pilots tried to head towards the formation of the “four”, the two Greek ones pursued them and air battles began.
The Greek pilots began to pull the Turks into a spiral of dogfights with the aim of being on their tail. The Turks somewhere lost their orientation, somewhere they believed they could reverse the situation, they persisted… until the desperate voice of one of the two Turkish pilots for help was heard over the radio.
The Greek who was behind him had locked him, the Turk was trying to escape and suddenly he saw that he was running out of fuel. Of course, the Greek fighters realized that things were going very badly for the opposing pilot and stopped pressuring him, giving him room to return home.
From the radio – according to the report – they could hear the Turks encouraging their colleague to land the fighter at the Dalaman base. The Turkish pilot was heard on the radio saying that he would not make it. That he will miss the plane.
Finally, he managed to land it with its tanks empty, after barely touching all three wheels on the runway, the engine died.
