Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence military has confirmed that all 20 military personnel aboard a Turkish C-130 cargo aircraft that crashed in eastern Georgia have died, marking one of the country’s deadliest military aviation disasters in recent years.
The plane went down late Tuesday, shortly after taking off from Ganja, a city in neighbouring Azerbaijan, before entering Georgian airspace. The wreckage was found near Sighnaghi, in Georgia’s Kakheti district, just a few kilometres from the Azerbaijani border.
In a statement on Wednesday, Defence Minister Yasar Guler expressed his grief over the loss, calling the fallen soldiers “our heroic comrades-in-arms” and sharing photographs of them in uniform on social media.
Turkish and Georgian investigators have begun a joint examination of the crash site to determine the cause of the accident. According to Georgia’s air traffic control agency, Sakaeronavigatsia, the aircraft disappeared from radar moments after entering Georgian airspace and did not issue a distress signal before impact.
Footage broadcast by Azerbaijani media showed a towering plume of black smoke rising from the crash site, with wreckage scattered across a remote field.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy, offering condolences to the families of the victims and praising their service. The C-130 Hercules involved in the crash is a U.S.-made, four-engine military transport aircraft widely used around the world for troop and cargo missions.
The crash is Turkey’s deadliest military accident since 2020, underscoring the risks faced by armed forces during regional operations and training flights.
Condolences have poured in from across the globe, including from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Egypt, Iran, Italy, and Malta, as well as from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who conveyed “deepest condolences” to Turkey and the families of the fallen soldiers.
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The U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, expressed America’s solidarity, while Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the C-130, also extended sympathies and pledged support for the ongoing investigation.
Turkey and Azerbaijan maintain close defence ties, with Ankara providing training and weaponry to Baku. The tragedy comes just days after both nations celebrated Victory Day in Baku, commemorating Azerbaijan’s 2020 military success in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Africa Today News, New York