A court in Greece has convicted and sentenced a Turkish fighter pilot in absentia to four years in prison following a fatal crash over the Aegean Sea in May 2006.
The incident saw two Lockheed Martin F-16Cs collide during a mock dogfight. The Turkish pilot, First Lt Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir, ejected, but Greek air force pilot Costas Iliakis died when his aircraft crashed into Aegean.
Ozdemir, who also did not appoint a lawyer, was convicted on 26 January of negligent manslaughter, and was given 15 days to appeal against the sentence or face arrest if he enters Greece. However, the charge was not considered serious enough to warrant an extradition request from the Greek government. There was no immediate reaction from the Turkish authorities.
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NATO allies Greece and Turkey are at odds over airspace boundaries and flight procedures in the Aegean, and mock dogfights between fighter aircraft (Turkish F-16 pictured, above) are common.
Source: Flight International
