CNN Turkey: Turkish Goverment Wrong, Pilots of Downed Russian Plane Alive

CNN Turkey is reporting that the Russian pilots of the Su-24 shot down by Turkey this morning are alive and in a secure location.

https://twitter.com/CNNTURK_ENG/status/669189748636930053

This contradicts a senior Turkish official’s statement.

“Both of the pilots were retrieved dead. Our comrades opened fire into the air and they died in the air,” declared Alpaslan Celik, a deputy commander.

He made the announcement in the “village of Yamadi as he held what he said was a piece of a pilot’s parachute.”

A Syrian rebel told CNN that the rebels fired at the Russian pilots as they parachuted to the ground. Turkish news outlet Hürriyet Daily News also reported that one pilot was killed while the rebels captured the other pilot. Doğan News Agency stated that both pilots perished.

A video has been making the rounds on social media of fighters allegedly shooting down the pilots, but this video is from April and unrelated to today’s incidents.