The Syrian Defense Ministry said the Turkish plane was over Syria's territorial waters and had crossed about half a mile from land, Syrian state media reported. The ministry noted that it discovered the plane was Turkish only after it had been shot down, WSJ reported.
The Turkish and Syrian navies continued a joint search for the crew of the missing aircraft, an F-4 warplane, which Syria said fell in the sea about six miles west of the Syrian village of Umm al-Tuyour.
Turkey confirmed late Friday that a Turkish Air Force jet missing over the Eastern Mediterranean since midday was shot down by Syria, according to a statement issued by the office of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, DPA reported.
The statement, which was read on Turkey's state news channel TRT Haber, said that joint efforts with Syria to locate the wreckage and the pilots were continuing.
Once the circumstances of the incident have become clear, necessary steps would be taken, Erdogan's office said.
There was no reference to reports earlier in the day that Syria had already issued an apology to Turkey for the incident. Erdogan went into an emergency session with his advisors immediately after he returned from the G20 world economic summit in Mexico.
Earlier, the Turkish General Staff said that the F-4 fighter taking off from an Erhach airbase in the province of Malatya in the south-eastern Turkey, disappeared from radar screens at about noon local time in the Mediterranean Sea to the south-east of the province of Hatay bordering on Syria. Local media reported that both pilots have been found alive eight miles off the coast of Syria, their health is satisfactory.