A Turkish military cargo plane crashed in neighboring Georgia Tuesday, killing all 20 servicemen aboard, Turkish authorities said Wednesday, launching an investigation into the incident.
The C-130 aircraft crashed shortly after crossing into Georgia, returning from Ganja, Azerbaijan, to Turkey, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. Search efforts coordinated between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia began immediately, officials said. Nineteen bodies have been recovered and one remains missing, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey state-run news agency Anadolu reported.
A Turkish military cargo plane crashed in neighboring Georgia Tuesday, killing all 20 servicemen aboard, Turkish authorities said Wednesday, launching an investigation into the incident.
The C-130 aircraft crashed shortly after crossing into Georgia, returning from Ganja, Azerbaijan, to Turkey, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. Search efforts coordinated between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia began immediately, officials said. Nineteen bodies have been recovered and one remains missing, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey state-run news agency Anadolu reported.
The crash was a “painful piece of news that plunged all 86 million of us into sorrow,” Erdogan said. The soldiers were in Azerbaijan for fifth anniversary Victory Day celebrations of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, he said — an event he also attended. Turkey and Azerbaijan are close partners, and Turkey backed Azerbaijan in its war with Armenia to take control of the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In the wake of the crash, Erdogan extended condolences to the grieving families, the Turkish Armed Forces and all Turkish citizens.
“May the Almighty God make the resting places of our martyrs paradise and their ranks exalted,” Erdogan said in a post to social media.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sent condolences to Turkey, a NATO member.
No cause for the crash has been provided so far. A team is conducting a technical investigation into the crash, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Azerbaijani and Georgian authorities also helped with the search and rescue, and they are mobilizing “all the resources” they can, Erdogan said.
Photos of the scene shown pieces of burned metal strewn in a large open, grassy area near the Azerbaijani border. Emergency workers, soldiers, and investigators, as well as police and military vehicles and ambulances, surrounded the wreckage site.
Video of the plane crash, published by the Associated Press, showed a large section of the plane spinning from the sky, leaving a helix of smoke, before hitting the ground.
C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft, made by U.S. manufacture Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin, have been used to airdrop supplies, provide relief operations, transport crews, drop bombs, retrieve satellites.
“Those who design, build, fly, support and maintain a Hercules often say the plane is without a doubt the world’s most proven workhorse — and for good reason,” said Lockheed Martin, a defense manufacturer that produces the plans, said in a page about C-130 Hercules history. The aircraft has the “longest, continuous military aircraft production run in history,” the company said, adding that 2,500 C-130s have been ordered to at least 63 nations.
The Defense Ministry published the names and military portraits of the 20 servicemen who were killed. “The homeland is grateful to you,” a statement read.
Erdogan urged Turkish citizens to be aware about disinformation as it spreads online about the incident.
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