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Turkish military plane with 20 onboard crashes in Georgia

Iran Press TV

Tuesday, 11 November 2025 6:28 PM

A Turkish military cargo plane with at least 20 people onboard, including the flight crew, has crashed in Georgia, authorities confirmed.

"[A] C-130 military cargo plane, which took off from Azerbaijan to return home, has crashed at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border," Turkey's Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Tuesday.

It did not specify the cause of the crash and gave no immediate confirmation of feared casualties.

Local media reports suggested, without giving exact figures, that both Turkish and Azerbaijani personnel were aboard the US made aircraft.

Dramatic footage circulating in media appeared to show the plane spinning horizontally before plummeting, leaving a trail of white smoke.

Other videos purportedly from the crash site showed blackened wreckage burning in a field as several bystanders looked on.

Sakaeronavigatsia, Georgia's state-controlled air navigation and air traffic service, said the plane disappeared from radar shortly after entering Georgian airspace.

"A Turkish C-130 aircraft disappeared from Sakaeronavigatsia's radar a few minutes after entering Georgian airspace, without transmitting a distress signal," the agency said, adding that it had launched "search and rescue operations."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was informed of the crash during a speech in Ankara.

"God willing, we will overcome this crash with minimum hardships. May God rest the soul of our martyrs, and let us be with them through our prayers," Erdogan said.

In a phone call with Erdogan, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev expressed sorrow over "the tragic news of the loss of servicemen" and extended his condolences to "the families and loved ones of the deceased, and the fraternal people of Turkey."

The C-130 Hercules, widely used by air forces worldwide, is a US made four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft capable of operating from unprepared runways for take-offs and landings.