Free Syrian Army claims to have shot down Syrian fighter plane
Rebels in eastern Syria said they had captured the pilot of a government fighter jet after shooting down his aircraft on Monday.
The downing of a warplane would be a rare event for lightly armed rebels faced with the superior weaponry of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. State television said the plane crashed due to technical difficulties.
In recent months the government has begun to use its air power to try to crush a 17-month-old uprising.The state news channel Syria TV said the plane crashed due to technical problems during a “regular training mission” and a search party was under way. State news agency SANA said the pilot had ejected from the plane before it crashed.
Activists released a video on YouTube which they said showed the pilot, named in the footage as Colonel Mufeed Mohammed Suleiman.
Rebels who say they shot down the jet and captured Suleiman are shown questioning a graying, balding man. He is seated at a table in a black shirt next to several rebels in green camouflage uniforms and holding assault rifles.
The Yahoo article, via Reuters, claims the plane was MiG-21, looks more like a MiG-23 though. Either way, the pilot’s day just went from bad to worse.