All news

Cameron to consider possibility of British involvement in investigation of Su-24 incident

The decoding of a Su-24 flight recorder, which contains the jet’s main parameters, will help determining the exact motion trajectory and the plane’s location at a time when it was shot down
Flight recorder of the downed Russian Su-24 Mikhail Klimentiyev/Russian president's press service/TASS
Flight recorder of the downed Russian Su-24
© Mikhail Klimentiyev/Russian president's press service/TASS

LONDON, December 9 /TASS/. British Prime Minister David Cameron will consider an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin to attract British experts to decoding the flight recorders of the downed Su-24 bomber, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement released after Cameron’s telephone conversation with Putin.

On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighter jet downed a Su-24 Russian bomber, which was legitimately performing a combat task in Syria.

The decoding of a SU-24 flight recorder, which contains the jet’s main parameters, will help determining the exact motion trajectory and the plane’s location at a time when it was shot down, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu a day earlier on Tuesday.

"As far as I understand, the parametric flight recorder will clarify how the Su-24 moved since the time it took off until its fall: speed, altitude and all the turns made in motion," Putin said at a meeting with Shoigu.

"In short, we will be able to understand where the jet was at a time when the Turkish Air Force delivered its treacherous strike," the Russian leader added.

Putin warned that Russia would not change its attitude to Turkey after the Su-24 flight recorder had been decoded irrespective of the result.

"I would like to make it clear straight from start that we certainly need to know (all the data contained in the flight recorder). But out findings will not change our attitude to what the Turkish authorities did. I repeat that we used to regard Turkey not only as a friendly country but as an ally in fighting terrorism. No one expected such a mean and treacherous stab in the back," Putin stressed adding that Russia needed to know all the details.

"We need to work with this device (flight recorder) thoroughly and attentively at a high professional level jointly with international experts. Anyway, I am inviting anybody who wants to take part in this work," the president stressed.