Today we commemorate the death of Captain (HAF) Kostas Iliakis who lost his life on May 23rd, 2006, while defending the Greek flag. More precisely, on May 23, 2006, a Greek F-16 and a Turkish F-16 collided near the island of Karpathos during a Turkish reconnaissance flight.
The Turkish F-16 aircraft crashed into the Greek F-16 aircraft while attempting to prevent the latter from identifying a Turkish RF-4 reconnaissance airplane, approximately 35 nautical miles south off the island of Rhodes. Greek pilot Kostas Iliakis was killed, and the Turkish pilot Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir bailed out and was rescued by a cargo ship.
The tension which escalated over the Aegean after the collision, was eased with telephone conversations between Greek and Turkish foreign ministers as well as general chiefs of staff. A crisis was avoided thanks to the calmness of authorities on both sides.
"Τιμη και δόξα στον Ηρωα.. Αθανατος!"
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