If you turn on a TV, you can’t help but notice the plethora of 80’s flashbacks. Shows like “Halt and Catch Fire” are set in the 80’s; others like “Moonbeam City” are designed to look like an 80’s art school exploded all over the screen. Cartoons like “Regular Show” and “Gravity Falls” hearken back to the 80’s with regularity. As a teen of the 80’s, this is somewhat amusing… after spending *my* childhood being inundated with 50’s and 60’s nostalgia, it’s my turn, I guess.

But come on, sometimes people take this too far. Like today, when the news breaks that NATO and Russian military forces are going at it.

Turkish F-16 fighter jets shoot down Russian warplane near Syrian border

It seems a Russian SU-24 (essentially their equivalent of the F-111) violated Turkish airspace near the Syrian border and the Turks promptly shot it down. Of the two crew, at least one is definitively dead; rumors are that both crew were shot from the ground while still in their chutes by Turkmen Syrian rebel forces.

Additionally, a Russian Mil-8 (possibly a rescue chopper sent to get the crew) went down on the Syrian side of the border, either due to mechanical failure or ground fire; rebels are reported to have blown up the chopper once on the ground. The video below seems to show this; a TOW missile is used to take out the grounded helicopter at some considerable distance. Trigger warning: repeated use of The Phrase That Pays after the explosion.