Cyprus making extra efforts to ensure air safety amid Turkish warplane incursions

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus authorities say they’re taking extra efforts to ensure flight safety isn’t compromised from Turkish warplanes and military drones flying inside Cypriot-monitored airspace without filing either flight plans or communicating with air traffic control. The issue over unregulated Turkish military flights again came to the fore earlier this month when Cypriot authorities said a Turkish warplane “illegally” flew low over a United Nations-controlled buffer zone that cuts across the ethnically-divided island nation on what was believed to be a surveillance mission. Turkey doesn’t recognize Cyprus as a state and is the only country to recognize a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the island’s northern third.