Well this ought to ease tensions in the Middle East.

I fear for the retaliation.

Just hope the pilots don't get captured by ISIS if they survived!
One has reportedly died not sure about the other

I think this could escalate before it calms down, and is more to do with who supports who!

I wonder if the same would of happened with a French, American or UK jet?

Reports seem to indicate that both pilots are dead. Turkish-trained ethnic Turkish Turkmen fighters (anti-Assad and anti Daesh) are claiming to have shot the pilots while they were parachuting.
Given that Turkey is a NATO member, one would hope that they would not have shot down one of their allies.
Turkey is very anti-Assad, so Russia's support for him and his allies is going to make them pretty hostile in situations like this.

Yes your right! already seen reports of holiday companies in Russia removing packages to Turkey apparently the 2nd biggest visitor by nation!

I know we don't have all the facts yet, but I would be very reluctant to shoot down a Russian plane, regardless of where it might have been flying.

yes i agree i think it was over the top especially as it was no threat to Turkey!
But!..the troops that have been targeted by Russia are reported to be funded by Turkey!
So the pilots were actually shot dead by the people they were trying to kill as Turkey wants rid of Assad but Russia doesnt
This is going to be a drawn out political rangle for sure, Turkey was resistant to air strikes originally due to this very issue and when started fighting ISIS decided to take out some of their own enemies too i'm led to believe

The Turkmen have admitted shooting at the aircrew whilst they parachuted from the aircraft, which is defined as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions so expect massive retaliation from the Russians.

It appears they also shot at a 'rescue' helicopter killing a Marine.

If you watch a clip of one of the pilots landing, you can see a shell exploding close to where he was coming down. Pretty shocking if the airmen were killed by Turks on the ground.

Something Putin said made me think that the plane was indeed over Turkish airspace, but "not posing any threat", so although I'm sure they will be vigorous in their rhetoric, I doubt they will take military action against Turkey.

The Russian ambassador in Paris is claiming that one of the pilots was rescued and is now on a Russian base, but I'm a bit dubious about that.

Be careful about the Turkmen, who - despite being trained by Turkey, of Turkish ethnic origin and fighting for the same cause - are not actually Turkish!

Odd that he was filmed from the back, according to the radio.

Interesting conundrum for the Turkmen. Parachuting aircrew are not a legitimate target under the Geneva Convention (unlike Paratroopers who are) however I would find it very unlikely the Turkmen signed up to the convention.

Having watched their fellow fighters dying at the hands of Russian aircraft, I am not at all surprised they shot at the aircrew. If they had been rescued, they would have returned to flying duties (as the survivor has already requested) and killed more Turkmen. Hence why I am not surprised at their actions, and fully understand the reasons they did so, abhorrent to us sat at home as they seem.

It was not unheard of during WW2 or in Vietnam for aircrew to be killed out of hand when captured, especially in the vicinity of their mission targets.

That's a good point, RK; is the Geneva Convention enforceable on non-signatories? Who actually CAN sign it?

The Turkish authorities have released what they claim is the audio of the warnings issued to the Russian plane, but even if authentic, given the geography of the area (a salient of Turkish territory sticking out into Syria), it was a pretty big call to shoot it down. Proportionate? I'd say no, but as a way of getting attention, pretty effective.

I was thinking this, Jim.

If the graphic in this link (showing the claimed flight path) is to be believed, then it seems highly unlikely that the Russian plane was in Turkish airspace for any length of time.

I'm no expert in Russian fighter jets, but they presumably fly pretty quickly and that bit of Turkey is very narrow.

To quote The Cure: 17 seconds.