Or forced it to land in Israel? Look, we know the Syrian pilots aren't rocket scientists and the Russian pilots are just doing a job, couldn't we have escorted the jet back to its own airspace? What if the pilot was trying to defect?

I realize that Israel can't take any chances with something like this and it takes only a few seconds for the Russian plane to fire off missiles or drop bombs on Israeli targets, but that hasn't happened in 40 years. Maybe the pilot WAS trying to defect. Just saying....

Turkey shot one down a while back as well.

Israel is not a group of women and children who have no air defense. This scum being downed probably saved lives in Syria aswell.

This relic could have been brought down by a shoulder fired missile...Patriots are too costly to waste on junkyard jets.

Woud be more clever to down it on Israel territory.