Shootdown

That's a SU-24 attack aircraft.  Known by NATO forces as a Fencer, it is similar to the one that Turkish forces shot down near the border between Turkey and Syria on November 24, 2015.

This is the F-16 Fighting Falcon.  One of these against a SU-24 might be a fight, depending on other variables.  But the Turks scrambled two F-16s.  Two of those against one SU-24 is not a fair fight.  It isn't much of a fight at all.  Apparently there was another SU-24 but it left the area after the warnings began.  Two on one isn't much of a contest.

According to CNN and other sources, the Turks warned the SU-24 crew at least ten times that they had violated Turkish airspace.  Ten times in five minutes.  The Russians say that their plane never entered Turkish airspace.    Both the L. A. Times and Reuters quote anonymous American sources as claiming the Russian jet was in Turkish airspace for only a few seconds.  Russian President Vladimir Putin said the SU-24 presented no threat to the Turkish people.

This was a bad call on the part of Turkey.  Force the plane down, force it to leave your airspace, but you don't shoot down a Russian jet at a time when that nation is engaged in an extreme level of saber-rattling.  While Russia and Turkey are on opposite sides of the equation in Syria (the Turks oppose the regime of Bashar al-Asad in Syria while the Russian attacks against ISIS are retribution for their downing of that Russian jet, they are also attacking the Syrian rebels as they support al-Asad), you don't shoot down a jet belonging to a country that is one of your biggest trading partners.

Russians visit Turkey as tourists in numbers exceeding 1.5 million annually.  Since the U. S. punished Russia by imposing sanctions against them for seizing land in the Crimea, the trade level between Russia and Turkey has increased significantly.  Turkey not being a member of the European Union is a factor in this.

As for the charges that the SU-24 pilots were fired upon as they attempted to parachute to safety, it seems that it was Syrian rebels near the border who were shooting at them and not Turkish forces.

This one could boil over rapidly.  Stay tuned.