Twenty soldiers were killed in the crash of Türkiye’s military aircraft in Georgia on Tuesday, as inspectors continue searching for clues about what caused the NATO member’s cargo plane to go down.
Türkiye Ministry of National Defence reported that search and rescue and accident investigation teams have begun examining the wreckage of the military cargo plane that crashed on the Azerbaijan-Georgia border.
In a statement, the ministry said, "At 06:30, in coordination with Georgian authorities, search and rescue and accident investigation teams began their examination of the wreckage of our military cargo plane that crashed on the Azerbaijan-Georgia border."
On Wednesday, the Turkish Defence Ministry released a list of the 20 soldiers killed in the crash.
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, have all conveyed condolences. Tom Barrack, the U.S. Ambassador to Türkiye, has also expressed his country's solidarity with Türkiye after the crash.
Turkish Defence Minster Yasar Guler on Tuesday spoke to his Georgian and Azerbaijani counterparts, as well as Azerbaijan's chief of staff, to discuss search and rescue operations.
Speaking at an event in the capital Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offered condolences for those who had died.
The aircraft had departed from Ganja International Airport in western Azerbaijan before disappearing from radar and descended in a mountainous area of Georgia’s Sighnaghi region.
According to exclusive information obtained by AnewZ, the aircraft had spent around two hours at Ganja Airport before take-off.
During that time, the crew carried out necessary maintenance and preparatory works near the aircraft. No third parties were allowed access, and all safety protocols were reportedly observed.
The plane was transporting members of the Turkish Air Force responsible for servicing the F-16 jets that took part in the Victory Day military parade in Baku on 8 November, as well as mechanical spare parts for those aircraft.
AnewZ’s sources confirm that no explosive materials were on board and that no signs of external interference or detonation were detected on the debris. The same conclusion is supported by video footage of the falling aircraft circulating online, which shows no visible signs of explosion.
Based on the information acquired by AnewZ, investigators are considering two main possible causes of the crash.
The first relates to the age of the aircraft, which had been in service for more than 50 years, with its last major overhaul carried out in 2020.
Experts note that corrosion or metal fatigue could have caused a structural failure during flight, similar to the 2017 crash of a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130, which disintegrated in mid-air due to a ruptured propeller blade.
The second possibility involves the cargo-loading process. In transport aircraft, improperly secured loads can shift during flight, causing imbalance and vibration that may compromise the fuselage and lead to structural failure.
On-site sources told AnewZ that the aircraft’s black box was recovered from open terrain after the crash.
The device will be sent for decoding, and the results will be made public once analysis is complete. Authorities from Türkiye, Georgia, and Azerbaijan are said to be cooperating closely to determine the exact cause of the tragedy.
The C-130 Hercules is a long-serving tactical transport aircraft widely used by the Turkish Air Force.
The final conclusions are expected once the flight-recorder data are analysed and the joint investigation report is released.
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