ANKARA – Turkey: A military cargo aircraft belonging to Turkey crashed in eastern Georgia near the Azerbaijan border, killing all 20 personnel on board. The four-engine C‑130 transport had departed from Azerbaijan and was en route to Turkey when contact was lost shortly after entering Georgian airspace.
Debris from the crash was scattered across farmland in Georgia’s Sighnaghi municipality, and video footage showed the aircraft spiralling downward before impact. Turkish and Georgian authorities have launched a joint investigation into the cause of the tragedy, though no distress signal was received prior to the crash.
Turkey’s Defence Minister referred to the victims as “heroic comrades-in-arms,” while leaders from Azerbaijan, Georgia and NATO extended condolences to Ankara. The incident is Turkey’s deadliest air force accident in recent years and raises fresh concerns about military transport safety and cross-border operations in a geopolitically sensitive zone.
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