Key Takeaways
- Turkish military transport plane crashes in Georgia with 20 personnel presumed dead
- Aircraft crashed near Azerbaijani border during return flight from Azerbaijan
- Recovery operation underway with Georgian authorities
Military Transport Plane Crashes Near Border
A Turkish Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashed in eastern Georgia on Tuesday, with all 20 personnel on board presumed dead, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
The Georgian Interior Ministry confirmed the aircraft was returning to Turkey from Azerbaijan when it went down in Sighnaghi Municipality, approximately five kilometers from the Azerbaijani-Georgian border.
Flight Details and Timeline
News channel NTV reported the plane had traveled from Trabzon, a Turkish Black Sea city, to Azerbaijan earlier on Tuesday. The aircraft departed from Ganja at 1:20 p.m. local time and vanished from radar screens 27 minutes later.
Video footage from the crash site shows the large transport plane spiraling downward before impact.
Official Response and Recovery Efforts
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed that his Georgian counterpart, Gela Geladze, had reached the crash location. “I offer my condolences to our nation and their families,” Yerlikaya stated in a social media post.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that recovery operations for the wreckage are currently underway through coordination with Georgian officials.
