A Turkish Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashed in eastern Georgia on Tuesday, the Turkish Defense Ministry confirmed. All 20 personnel on board, including the crew, are presumed dead, though the toll has not been officially verified.
According to Georgia’s Interior Ministry, the aircraft had departed from Azerbaijan and was returning to Türkiye when it went down in Sighnaghi Municipality, about five kilometers from the Azerbaijani-Georgian border.
Video from the scene shows the large plane spiraling out of control before crashing into the ground.
Turkish broadcaster NTV reported that the aircraft had arrived in Azerbaijan earlier Tuesday from the Turkish city of Trabzon. It departed from Ganja at 1:20 p.m. local time and disappeared from radar 27 minutes later.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said his Georgian counterpart, Gela Geladze, had visited the crash site. “I offer my condolences to our nation and to the families of our fallen,” Yerlikaya wrote on X.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said recovery operations were underway in coordination with Georgian authorities.
Source: RT
Bd-pratidin English/ Jisan
