https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/28/tensions-rise-between-turkey-and-russia-after-killing-of-troops-in-syria

Bethan McKernan and agencies

Fri 28 Feb 2020 06.10 EST

Move appears designed to put pressure on Europe to support Turkish Idlib operation

Bethan McKernan and agencies


Turkish soldiers stand guard as refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border at Edirne, Turkey.

Hundreds of Syrian refugees in Turkey have begun preparing to travel towards the country’s borders with Greece and Bulgaria after Ankara’s sudden decision to no longer impede their passage to Europe.

The move comes after an airstrike on Thursday night in Syria’s Idlib province killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers recently deployed to support the Syrian opposition in the face of a blistering Russian-backed Syrian government offensive.

Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials were ordered to stand down overnight on Thursday, Turkish officials briefed reporters.

Turkey often threatens to reopen the migrant route from the Middle East, which at its peak in 2015 saw thousands drown in the Mediterranean and a million people reach Greece and Italy, where many still live in miserable displacement camps.

Thursday’s decision, however, effectively reverses a 2016 deal Turkey struck with the EU to cut the numbers of migrants entering Europe. It appears to be calibrated to force the EU and Nato to support Ankara’s new military operation in Idlib.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/mck_beth/status/1233311671898320901
Bethan McKernan ✔@mck_beth

Seen from my window 10 minutes ago: the Russian Admiral Makarov, followed by the Admiral Grigorovich, both capable of firing Kalibr cruise missiles, sailing thorough the heart of Istanbul. They’re en route to Latakia after last night’s escalation with Turkey in Syria.



3:43 AM - Feb 28, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_NASA_T-38_crash



The 1966 NASA T-38 crash occurred when a NASA Northrop T-38 Talon crashed at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 28, 1966, killing two Project Gemini astronauts, Elliot See and Charles Bassett. The aircraft, piloted by See, crashed into the McDonnell Aircraft building where their Gemini 9 spacecraft was being assembled. The weather was poor with rain, snow, fog, and low clouds. A NASA panel, headed by the Chief of the Astronaut Office, Alan Shepard, investigated the crash. While the panel considered possible medical issues or aircraft maintenance problems, in addition to the weather and air traffic control factors, the end verdict was that the crash was caused by pilot error.

In the aftermath of the crash, the backup crew of Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan were moved up to the primary position for the Gemini 9 mission, scheduled for early June. Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, who had formerly been the backup for Gemini 10, became the mission's backup crew, and through the normal rotation were assigned as prime crew for Gemini 12. Without the Gemini experience, it is unlikely that Aldrin would have been assigned to the Apollo 11 mission, during which he became the second man to walk on the Moon.

Accident


Northrop T-38 Talon operated by NASA

See and Bassett were the prime crew assigned to the Gemini 9 mission. They and the backup crew for the mission, Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan, were flying to St. Louis from their normal training base in Houston, Texas, for two weeks of simulator training for rendezvous and docking procedures at McDonnell Aircraft, the prime contractor for the Gemini spacecraft. It was a routine flight that they had made many times previously.

See and Bassett flew in one Northrop T-38A Talon jet trainer, tail number NASA 901 (Air Force serial number 63-8181), with See at the controls and Bassett in the rear seat. A second T-38, NASA 907, carried Stafford and Cernan in the same configuration. The two aircraft took off from Ellington Air Force Base in Texas at 7:35 a.m. CST, with See in the lead and Stafford in wing position. Weather at Lambert Field in St. Louis was poor, with rain, snow, and fog, broken clouds at 800 feet (240 m) and a cloud ceiling of 1,500 feet (460 m), requiring an instrument approach. When the two aircraft emerged below the clouds shortly before 9 am, both pilots realized that they had missed the outer marker and overshot the runway.

See then elected to perform a visual circling approach, a simplified landing procedure allowing flight under instrument rules, as long as the pilot can keep the airfield and any preceding aircraft in sight. The reported weather conditions at the airport were adequate for this type of approach, but visibility was irregular and deteriorating rapidly. Stafford began to follow See's plane, but when he lost sight of it in the clouds he instead followed the standard procedure for a missed approach and pulled his aircraft up, back into the clouds for another attempt at an instrument landing.

See completed a full circle to the left at an altitude of 500 to 600 feet (150 to 180 m), and announced his intention to land on the southwest runway (24). With landing gear down and full flaps, the plane dropped quickly but too far left of the runway. See turned on his afterburner to increase power while pulling up and turning hard right. Seconds later, at 8:58 a.m. CST, the plane struck the roof of McDonnell Building 101 on the northeast side of the airport. It lost its right wing and landing gear on impact, then cartwheeled and crashed in a parking lot beyond the building which was in use as a construction staging area.

Both astronauts died instantly from trauma sustained in the crash. See was thrown clear of the cockpit and was found in the parking lot still strapped to his ejection seat with the parachute partially open. Bassett was decapitated on impact; his severed head was found later in the day in the rafters of the damaged assembly building.

Inside Building 101, 17 McDonnell employees and contractors received mostly minor injuries from falling debris. The crash set off several small fires inside the building, and caused minor flooding from broken pipes and sprinklers. See and Bassett died within 500 feet (150 m) of the spacecraft that they were to have flown in orbit, which was in the final stages of assembly in another part of Building 101. Spacecraft S/C9 was undamaged, but a piece of debris from the T-38's wing struck the unfinished S/C10 spacecraft.

Stafford and Cernan, still circling in the clouds in the second T-38, had no idea what had happened to their flight partners. Air traffic controllers were confused by the two planes in flight attempting different abort actions after the initial missed approach, and no one on the ground knew who was in the crashed plane. After some delay, Stafford and Cernan were asked to identify themselves and given permission to land, but they were not informed of the crash until on the ground. Although personally distraught over the loss of his close colleagues and friends, Stafford acted as NASA's chief contact on the scene until other personnel arrived to relieve him later in the day.

Investigation and aftermath
NASA immediately appointed a seven-member panel to investigate the crash, headed by their Chief of the Astronaut Office, Alan Shepard. While the panel weighed possible medical issues, aircraft maintenance problems, weather conditions, and air traffic control factors, their end verdict was pilot error, citing See's inability "to maintain visual reference for a landing" as the primary cause of the crash. See was described as a "cautious and conservative" pilot in the accident report. In his memoir, chief astronaut Deke Slayton was less diplomatic, calling See's piloting skills "old-womanish." Others, including Neil Armstrong, who had worked with See on the backup crew for Gemini 5, have since defended See's piloting ability.

Since the crash did not affect space flight operations and the spacecraft itself was undamaged—it was shipped to NASA two days after the crash—the accident caused neither delays nor engineering changes in the U.S. space program. However, the loss of the Gemini 9 crew did cause NASA to reshuffle the crew assignments for subsequent Gemini and Apollo missions; Stafford and Cernan were moved up to the primary position for Gemini 9, re-designated Gemini 9A. Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, who had formerly been the backup for Gemini 10, became the back-up crew for Gemini 9A, and through the normal rotation were then assigned as prime crew for Gemini 12. Without experience during the Gemini mission, Buzz Aldrin would have been an unlikely choice for the Apollo 11 mission, during which he became the second man to walk on the Moon.


'Fallen Astronaut' sculpture left on the moon by the crew of Apollo 15

https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/status/1233253173533532160
Laurie Garrett ✔@Laurie_Garrett

"After hospital discharge or discontinuation of #COVID19 quarantine, the patients were asked to continue quarantine at home for 5 dys. All patients had 3 repeat RT-PCR tests performed over the next 4 to 5 days and all were positive. "

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762452?guestAccessKey=267dc618-ac60-4c9d-b541-e01f79aed7e9
RT-PCR Test Results in Patients Recovered From COVID-19
This case series describes reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results in 4 health professionals discharged from hospitalization or quarantine after 2 negative RT-PCR test...

11:50 PM - Feb 27, 2020

https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/turkey-hits-russian-assad-regime-bastion-latakia-in-western-syria/news

BY DAILY SABAH WITH WIRES

ISTANBUL POLITICS FEB 28, 2020 1:21 AM GMT+3

Turkey early Friday carried out missile attacks on targets in Syria's central Hama, northwestern towns of Nubl and Zahraa, as well as in regime and Russian bastion, Latakia, in response to the Assad regime airstrike that killed 22 Turkish soldiers.

The military also pounded Assad regime targets with artillery along the frontline in Idlib.

Earlier in the day, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan convened an emergency meeting over tensions in the war-ravaged Syrian city.

Security sources told Daily Sabah that all ministers and senior officials, including the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief Hakan Fidan, were present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Communications released a statement on the Turkish offensive against Syrian regime forces.

It said Turkish forces have neutralized at least 1,709 Assad regime soldiers, as well as 55 tanks, three helicopters, 18 armored vehicles, 29 howitzers, 21 military vehicles, six ammunition depots, seven mortars and four Soviet-made DShK heavy machine guns.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/neal_katyal/status/1233179410238496776
Neal Katyal ✔@neal_katyal



6:57 PM - Feb 27, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/world/middleeast/russia-turkey-syria-war-strikes.html

Airstrike Hits Turkish Forces in Syria

The Turkish army suffered mass casualties in an airstrike, Turkish officials say, an attack that could dramatically shift the course of the Syrian war.

By Carlotta Gall

Feb. 27, 2020

Updated 5:50 p.m. ET

ISTANBUL — The Turkish army suffered mass casualties in an airstrike in northwest Syria late Thursday, an attack that could dramatically change the course of the Syrian war.

At least 22 Turkish soldiers were killed, said Rahmi Dogan, the Turkish governor of the southern province of Hatay, where the Turkish casualties were arriving. News reports citing social media messages and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, put the number of Turkish dead as high as 34.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey held an emergency meeting Thursday evening in Ankara, Turkish media reported. He has been calling for Syrian government and Russia forces to cease their two-month offensive in Idlib Province and to pull back from Turkish positions, which have been encircled and cut off by Syrian government forces.

Turkish officials said the strike had been carried out by Syrian government forces, but Russian jets have been conducting most of the airstrikes in the area in recent weeks. Russian officials could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/1233153103400181761
Olga Lautman @olgaNYC1211

Russia-Turkey are on the verge of war. 22 Turkish soldiers were killed with some reports being
higher after reports that Russian forces fired on Turkish soldiers in Idlib. There is also an unconfirmed report that Turkey has told the Russian ambassador to leave. Will update

AFP news agency ✔@AFP

#BREAKING Russia accuses Turkey of violating Syria deal, supporting rebels with artillery

5:13 PM - Feb 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/olgaNYC1211/status/1233153103400181761
Olga Lautman @olgaNYC1211

Russia-Turkey are on the verge of war. 22 Turkish soldiers were killed with some reports being
higher after reports that Russian forces fired on Turkish soldiers in Idlib. There is also an unconfirmed report that Turkey has told the Russian ambassador to leave. Will update

AFP news agency ✔@AFP

#BREAKING Russia accuses Turkey of violating Syria deal, supporting rebels with artillery

5:13 PM - Feb 27, 2020

https://twitter.com/JenGriffinFNC/status/1233167593189576705
Jennifer Griffin ✔@JenGriffinFNC

People’s Liberation Army Navy lased a U.S. Navy P-8A in unsafe, unprofessional manner | Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet

https://www.cpf.navy.mil/news.aspx/110928 …
People’s Liberation Army Navy lased a U.S. Navy P-8A in unsafe, unprofessional manner
This aircraft was operating in international airspace when lased by a PLAN destroyer.

6:10 PM - Feb 27, 2020