Turkiye Confirms All 20 Soldiers Died in Plane Crash (Source: X/ Harry Istepanian)
All 20 crew members on board a Turkish C-130 military cargo aircraft have been confirmed dead as the plane crashed in the north of Georgia, close to the Azerbaijani border. This was contained in a statement by Turkey's Defence Ministry, which also said the authorities of both countries have started a joint probe into the cause of the tragic incident.
The ministry confirmed the deaths on Wednesday, a day after the aircraft went down shortly after taking off from Ganja, Azerbaijan. Defence Minister Yasar Guler paid tribute to the fallen personnel in a social media posting on Wednesday containing photographs of the soldiers in uniform. "Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred," he wrote.
The crash site was being investigated early Wednesday morning by officials from Turkey's accident investigation team, as well as Georgian authorities, in the municipality of Sighnaghi, in Georgia's Kakheti district, some 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) from the Azerbaijan border.
Georgia's Sakaeronavigatsia air traffic control service said that the C-130 aircraft disappeared from radar shortly after it entered the Georgian airspace. No signal of distress was sent out in advance of the crash. Eyewitness videos, published by Azerbaijani media, showed heavy black smoke billowing into the sky, with scattered debris across the crash area.
The tragedy represents the deadliest military aviation disaster of Turkey in five years, with messages of condolences flowing from around the world. The President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was "deeply saddened" by the loss and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
Condolences came from, amongst others, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Georgian leadership, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack also extended America's sympathy and solidarity with the Turkish people. The manufacturer of the aircraft, Lockheed Martin, issued a statement mourning the loss but confirmed full cooperation with the investigation into what caused the fatal crash.
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