A Turkish military cargo plane crashed on the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan as it was flying back home, Turkey’s defence ministry said Tuesday.
“Our C-130 military cargo plane, which took off from Azerbaijan to return home, has crashed at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border,” the ministry said on X, indicating a search and rescue operation was taking place but without saying whether there were any casualties or how many people were on board.
In a statement, Georgia’s interior ministry confirmed the crash of “a Turkish military aircraft” that was flying to Turkey, saying it went down “about five kilometres from Georgia’s state border” with Azerbaijan.
It said an investigation had been opened.
President Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences for “our martyrs”.
While finishing a speech in Ankara, Erdogan was handed a note by his aides, after which he said he was saddened to hear about the plane’s crash.
“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,” he said.
Erdogan, his office and the ministry did not say what caused the crash, and they did not provide the number of casualties. Local media said, without citing numbers, that there were both Turkish and Azeri personnel on board.
