A Turkish military cargo plane carrying 20 people, including crew, crashed in Georgia while returning from Azerbaijan, reported the defense ministry on Tuesday.
“Our C-130 cargo plane, departing from Azerbaijan, crashed at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border,” confirmed the ministry, noting that “20 personnel, including the flight crew, were on board.”
Search and rescue efforts are underway, it added.
Dramatic video in Azerbaijani media showed the plane spinning horizontally before crashing, emitting a large black smoke cloud.
Footage from the crash site showed blackened wreckage burning while bystanders watched from a field.
Turkey’s defense ministry requested the media not to publish crash images.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated Turkey is collaborating with Georgian authorities to “reach the wreckage,” expressing grief for the “martyrs,” as reported by Anadolu agency.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev offered condolences to Turkey in a post on X.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan communicated with his Georgian counterpart Maka Bochorishvili regarding rescue operations, the ministry said.
Georgia’s interior ministry confirmed the crash in the Sighnaghi area, “around five kilometers from Georgia’s border with Azerbaijan.”
Georgia’s Sakaeronavigatsia air traffic control reported the plane vanished from radar after entering Georgian airspace, with emergency services alerting them of the crash.
“A Turkish C-130 aircraft disappeared from Sakaeronavigatsia’s radar soon after entering Georgian airspace without sending a distress signal,” it stated, noting “search and rescue operations” were commenced.
“Ganja airport in Azerbaijan, from where the Turkish plane departed, has been informed, as has the Turkish side,” it added.
The C-130 Hercules military cargo plane is manufactured by US company Lockheed Martin.
