Talk:Turkish Downing of a Syrian Helicopter

From A Closer Look On Syria
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Location

Both sides seem to agree this helicopter strayed into Turkish airpspace. The Syrian military says it was on it way back out, as crashing back in the door in flame suggests. They say it happened near here on Google Maps, I think. I'm guessing, more precisely, it was down around here, that damn sore little thumb of Turkey sticking down almost to Salma and the area of the Latakia Massacres. These same Islamist mercenaries now getting more aggressive Ottoman air cover. I can see a slight crossing being hard to avoid there. --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:20, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

The SOHR's posted video of the pilot's capture might help set the exact location of drift-down, if not the crash or the shooting itself. I don't have a direction reading yet, but they're filming from railroad tracks, narrows it down some. It was early afternoon? An exact overall time would set directions with no guessing. (I'm so not promising to do any of this...) --Caustic Logic (talk) 15:20, 23 September 2013 (UTC)

I didn't try very hard here yet. But just to chill, I had another look. The view at the video's start must be sort of north, vaguely. Moutain shadow vs. cloud shadow is unclear for the foreground, and distance shadows aren't clear. So a segment of track running north-ish, bending to the right. field of trees ahead, wild trees and scrub around. I found a rail line. On one end I lose it here, with no apparent terminal, and at the other end, a possible terminal, but maybe a long tunnel? Or another spur starting over hereand running generally southwest. Along the route, possible scene matches: just meters from the border, or a few possible matches along this stretch a bit south. Much further south and the tracks wind through a city and then run right by the highway. Either way, this is along the border rail line, all generally about 2-3 km inside Syrian territory right alongside that Asagipulluyazi thumb of Turkey. --Caustic Logic (talk) 10:50, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

On the eastern end that disappears, that's just north of Jisr al-Shughour. I found where it comes out from under the hill again, but the countryside here and past looks entirely wrong to contain any matches. It'll be along the SSW/NNE stretch flanking the thumb. At its north bend, it's like 100 meters from the border, and areas nearby are likely infiltration spots. Get to the tracks, walk south, and down towards Salma. This might be of interest at some point. --Caustic Logic (talk) 11:34, 25 September 2013 (UTC)