Here is what happened, actually:
Greek, Turkish fighter jets crash
ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- The body of a Greek pilot was found Tuesday, hours after his fighter jet collided with a Turkish F-16 during a mock dogfight over the southern Aegean Sea, according to Turkey's foreign ministry.
The Turkish pilot ejected safely and was rescued.
The Greek F-16 had been dispatched to intercept the Turkish jet because it had violated Greek airspace, according to the Greek Defense Ministry.
Both fighter jets were maneuvering around each other in a mock dogfight when the crash happened around 1 p.m. (6 a.m. ET) about 12 miles east of the Greek island of Karpathos, the ministry said. (Click here to see map of area)
The ministry said the crash happened over international waters.
The pilot of an EgyptAir commercial jet witnessed the incident while on a flight to Cairo, a Greek Defense Ministry official said.
The collision highlights an ongoing dispute between Greece and Turkey, both members of NATO, over the boundaries between their airspace and territorial waters.
Archrivals Greece and Turkey regularly criticize each other for causing mock fights between warplanes over the Aegean sea.
Greece's defense ministry says it daily scrambles several fighter jets to intercept Turkish jets that it claims have invaded its airspace.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul phoned his Greek counterpart Dora Bakoyanni, who is visiting Helsinki, the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement, Reuters reported.
"The two foreign ministers expressed their regret for today's incident and agreed that this should not affect the two countries' efforts to improve their relations," the statement said.
The two countries, who came close to war as recently as 1996, have considerably improved ties but have not resolved territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea and over the divided island of Cyprus.
"This incident will not do any good," Thanos Veremis, of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy think tank, told Reuters. "I think it will increase Greek frustration."
Journalist Anthee Carassava contributed to this report
Greece, Turkey avert jet crash crisis
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Ten years ago, NATO allies Greece and Turkey nearly fought over two uninhabited islets. War was again narrowly avoided in 1987 as Turkey prepared to send an oil-drilling ship into disputed Aegean Sea waters.
That did not happen this week. Leaders of the uneasy neighbors raced to head off a potential crisis after two military jets collided Tuesday near a Greek island -- the scene of almost daily mock dogfights between the two countries' warplanes over contested airspace.
Senior diplomats and defense officials from the two nations started talking on the phone within an hour of the crash.
On Wednesday, analysts, politicians and the media lined up on both sides of the Aegean to voice approval for quick efforts to defuse tensions over the collision. Some ventured that recent years of economic cooperation and political bridge-building finally took the edge off of age-old animosity.
The Greek and Turkish F-16s collided near Karpathos, about 440 kilometers (270 miles) southeast of Athens. The Turkish pilot ejected safely and was picked up by a merchant ship, while the Greek airman is still missing despite a major rescue effort.
"It was a dangerous situation ... and it was handled with calm and responsibility," said Greek government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros, adding that formal complaints and reports would be made to Ankara and NATO.
Athens maintains the Turkish jet was escorting a spy plane, violated international flight rules, and provoked the crash through reckless flying.
That account was flatly denied in Ankara -- where officials repeated accusations that Greece had imposed unilateral airspace limits -- but there was a common sense of relief that tension had quickly been defused.
"We want to see the Aegean turn into a sea of peace and friendship, but for this we feel the moderates on two sides have to battle against hard-liners who want blood, sweat and tears," said Ilnur Cevik, editor in chief of the English-language New Anatolian newspaper.
Seyfi Tashan, director of the Foreign Policy Institute at Bilkent University in Ankara, added: "It's ridiculous to have such incidents occurring from time to time ... both sides should show adequate statesmanship to resolve these problems."
In Greece, the conservative Eleftheros Typos newspaper praised "Tension in the air, calm on the ground," while one analyst suggested that recent mammoth trade deals between Greece and Turkey may also help sober policies prevail.
"Increasingly the societies and economies of Greece and Turkey are making it clear that they do not want a return to a period of tension," said Theodore Couloumbis, director of the ELIAMEP think tank.
"Economic cooperation has flourished, with deals in the energy sector and banking worth billions of dollars," Couloumbis said. "But this incident was a warning signal to both countries that dangers still exist."
Greece says its national airspace extends to 10 miles (17 kilometers), but Turkey recognizes only six miles (10 kilometers). The two countries are also at odds over the divided island of Cyprus and sea boundaries in the Aegean Sea.
Earlier this year, Prime Ministers Costas Caramanlis of Greece and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey agreed to set up direct communication between air force command centers in both countries to avoid military accidents. The telephone link has not yet been established.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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