A Turkish C-130 military cargo plane crashed in eastern Georgia near the Azerbaijani border, killing all 20 personnel on board, Turkey’s Defense Minister Yasar Guler confirmed on Wednesday.
The aircraft was en route from Ganja, Azerbaijan, to Turkey when it went down in Sighnaghi municipality on Tuesday. Officials said contact was lost shortly after the plane entered Georgian airspace and that no distress signal was issued.
The victims were returning from Azerbaijan’s Victory Day celebrations, marking its 2020 victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said investigators have recovered the flight data recorder, and a 46-member Turkish team is examining the wreckage with Georgian authorities.
So far, the remains of 19 victims have been recovered. The 1968-built aircraft, previously operated in Saudi Arabia, was added to Turkey’s fleet in 2010. Condolences poured in from Azerbaijan, Georgia, the U.S. and NATO, whose Secretary General Mark Rutte honored the fallen soldiers.
