>TC-ATA [Erdogan's jet] used a callsign THY 8456 to disguise as a Turkish Airlines airplane (Turkish’s callsign is THY) [0]
>The jets didn’t fire after the presidential plane’s pilot told the fighter jet pilots over the radio that it was a Turkish Airlines flight, a senior counter-terrorism official told the Guardian. [1]
[0] https://theaviationist.com/2016/07/18/exclusive-all-the-deta...
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/18/military-coup-...
Generally coups take place in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep. This was during rush hour.
Usually coups involve taking over key administrative buildings as quickly as possible. They took over one of the busiest bridges in Istanbul.
The attempted coup also lacked the majority support of the military it requires to be successful.
97% of the Turkish Armed Forces ranking officers weren’t involved in the coup.
66% of the military's top leadership weren't involved in the coup.
They only had 35 jets and 37 helicopters.
During a coup the military should not be fighting itself whilst also attempting to take control. In this case the coups forces were smaller and worse equipped than the governments military.
They should have been able to shoot it down. However that they werent able to do so and encountered problems with their aircraft suggests outside intervention. Erdogan being aware that his location was being targeted by the coup's special forces and swiftly moving away from there is another indicator to that end. Which are likely reasons why Turkey is quite friendly with Russia at the moment - the only power that has enough intelligence strength and the means to jam equipments of aircraft.
