A Turkish military cargo plane travelling from Azerbaijan to Turkey crashed in eastern Georgia near the Azerbaijani border on Tuesday, with 20 people onboard, the Turkish Defence Ministry confirmed.
Search and rescue operations are underway in coordination with Azerbaijani and Georgian authorities, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The aircraft was carrying 20 military personnel and crew. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed condolences, referring to those onboard as “martyrs,” although he did not provide further details regarding casualties.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into the crash. It said the causes remained unclear, but promised to release detailed information soon. The crash occurred in Georgia’s Sighnaghi region, roughly five kilometres inside its border.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev extended his condolences to President Erdogan, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
The Turkish Defence Ministry urged the media not to share any images of the crash. However, videos purportedly documenting the incident have begun circulating on the X platform.
Two separate recordings show a plane spiralling before a thick white smoke trail appears in its wake, followed by an explosion and black smoke rising from the crash site.
The videos suggest that the aircraft had partially disintegrated in mid-air before hitting the ground.
Georgia’s air navigation service, Sakaeronavigatsia, reported that the plane disappeared from radar shortly after crossing into Georgian airspace and did not send out a distress signal. The aircraft had departed from Gandja, a city in western Azerbaijan.
