A Turkish military transport plane crashed in Georgia on Tuesday, killing all 20 Air Force personnel on board, officials in Ankara confirmed.
The C-130 aircraft went down shortly after takeoff from the Azerbaijani city of Ganja, en route to Turkey. The crash occurred inside Georgian territory near the Azerbaijani border, according to statements from both governments.
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said the plane was carrying Air Force servicemen and expressed condolences to their families. He confirmed the fatalities early Wednesday through a post on social media.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the aircraft had departed from Ganja before losing contact, adding that Georgia and Azerbaijan were coordinating with Turkey in the aftermath.
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Footage circulated online and verified by media sources showed a large transport plane spiraling before impact, followed by a plume of black smoke. Aviation tracking service Flightradar24 reported that a Turkish C-130 had climbed to an altitude of 24,000 feet before data indicated a sudden, rapid descent.
The aircraft, identified as a C-130E built in 1968, had previously served in the Royal Saudi Air Force before being transferred to Turkey in 2010, according to publicly available records.
Images released by international news agencies located the wreckage near the Georgian town of Sighnaghi, about 30 miles from Azerbaijan’s border. Georgian Interior Ministry officials visited the site, and a joint investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the accident.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Turkish officials were in contact with their Georgian counterparts and that all necessary assistance would be provided.
Neither Ankara nor Baku detailed the nature of the Turkish mission in Azerbaijan. The two countries maintain close military cooperation and conduct frequent joint exercises.
The crash came less than a week after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Baku, marking the fifth anniversary of Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Lockheed Martin, the US manufacturer of the C-130, had no immediate comment.