Turkey on Monday sent back to Russia the corpse of a pilot killed when his plane was shot down by the Turkish air force on the Syrian border, reports said.

Turkey on Monday sent back to Russia the corpse of a pilot killed when his plane was shot down by the Turkish air force on the Syrian border, reports said.

A special flight carrying the corpse of Oleg Peshkov left Ankara airport for Russia, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported, without giving further details.

His body had at the weekend been taken from Syria to southern Turkey and then flown to Ankara.

On November 24, Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M jet inside Syria, claiming that the aircraft violated the Turkish airspace. Russia rejects Turkey’s claim. The aircraft was on a mission targeting terrorists in Syria.

The aircraft’s two pilots ejected as it was going down in flames. Peshkov was killed by militants in Syria, while the second was picked up by the Syrian army, and has already spoken to Russian media.