Türkiye’s defence ministry says investigations are still underway and it is too early to determine what caused the military cargo plane crash in Georgia that killed 20 soldiers earlier this week.

“As a result of the search efforts in the wreckage of our military cargo plane that crashed on the Azerbaijan-Georgia border, the sacred body of our 20th martyr has been reached,” the National Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Remains of the Turkish Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, which crashed in Georgia on 11 November, will be transported to Kayseri Province, Report informs referring to the Yeni Safak newspaper.

According to the newspaper, relevant agencies are conducting a comprehensive investigation at the scene of the crash in Georgia, after which the aircraft fragments will be transported to the Kayseri military base.

The C-130 cargo aircraft had left Azerbaijan for Türkiye and crashed on Tuesday, an incident marking the NATO member's highest military death toll since 2020.

At a briefing in Ankara, the ministry said the aircraft was bought from Saudi Arabia in 2012 and had gone through necessary modernisations, including its last maintenance a month ago.

It was not carrying ammunitions on its last flight, it added.

However, the ministry said all planned flights by Türkiye's 18 C-130 planes had been suspended pending inspections, and that the black box of the crashed plane was being analysed.

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