Turkey has confirmed that all 20 personnel aboard its military cargo plane that crashed in Georgia on Tuesday have been killed.
The Turkish military transport plane carrying 20 personnel, including crew members, crashed in Georgia shortly after taking off from Azerbaijan.
Footage of the C-130 Hercules showed it spiralling through the air, trailing white smoke before slamming into the ground and erupting into a column of black smoke.
The aircraft was en route back to Turkey when it went down, though the cause of the crash remains uncertain.
“We have learned with great sorrow that our C-130 military aircraft has crashed on the Georgia-Azerbaijan border. Our efforts to reach the wreckage continue in coordination with the national authorities,” said Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A few minutes after entering Georgian airspace, the aircraft “disappeared from radar without transmitting a distress signal”, the Georgian air navigation service said earlier.
The Interpress news agency reported that the aircraft crashed in Sighnaghi, a municipality in the eastern Kakheti region near Azerbaijan. It said the crash was being investigated under a criminal code article covering air transport and the loss of life.
Mr Erdogan was handed a note by aides at the end of a speech in Ankara to inform him of the crash. He offered his condolences for “our martyrs”, referring to the personnel on the aircraft, without giving more details.
“God willing, we will overcome this crash with minimum hardships,” the leader said. “May God rest the soul of our martyrs, and let us be with them through our prayers.”
Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze offered his condolences to Mr Erdoğan over the deadly military plane crash, during a phone conversation between the two leaders. “In this difficult time, Georgia extends full solidarity to our Turkish friends. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected by this tragedy,” the prime minister said.
Earlier, Georgian authorities reached the crash site at around 5pm local time, Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said.
Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, expressed his condolences to Mr Erdogan, “the families and loved ones of the deceased, and the fraternal people of Turkey” in a call.
In an official readout, Mr Aliyev said he had discussed “the tragic news of the loss of servicemen” in the crash with Mr Erdogan.
Turkey deployed a drone to assist in the search and rescue operation and was preparing an accident investigation team to leave for Georgia, according to broadcaster NTV.
US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said he was “deeply saddened by today’s tragic crash of a Turkish Armed Forces aircraft”, and extended condolences to the families of the fallen, adding that the US “stands in solidarity with our Turkish allies”.
Lockheed Martin, the American manufacturer of C-130 Hercules, which is used by air forces around the world, said it was “committed” to supporting the investigation.
The C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military cargo and troop carrier plane that can use unprepared runways for take-off and landing.
Turkey reached an agreement last month with the UK to buy 12 second-hand C-130J aircraft.
Turkey shares strong military and diplomatic ties with Azerbaijan. Mr Erdogan recently attended celebrations in Baku commemorating the 2020 win in the Nagorno-Karabakh war against Armenia.
