Turkiye confirms that all 20 soldiers died in the crash of its military plane in Georgia | Aviation news
A Turkish investigation into the accident began its work at the accident site in coordination with Georgian authorities.
Published on November 12, 2025
All 20 personnel aboard a Turkish C-130 military cargo plane that crashed in Georgia, near the border with Azerbaijan, have died, the Turkish Defense Ministry said, as investigators at the scene examine the cause of the accident.
The confirmation came on Wednesday, a day after the plane crashed after taking off from the neighboring Azerbaijani town of Ganja.
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“Our heroic comrades in arms were martyred,” Defense Minister Yasar Guler said in a social media post, alongside photographs of the deceased in their uniforms.
The ministry said a Turkish investigation into the accident, in coordination with Georgian authorities, began inspecting the wreckage at the crash site in Sighnaghi municipality in Georgia’s Kakheti district on Wednesday morning.
The accident, Turkey’s deadliest military incident since 2020, occurred about 5 km from the Georgian-Azerbaijani border.
Georgia’s air traffic control service Sakaeronavigatsia said the plane disappeared from radar shortly after entering the country’s airspace, sending no distress signals before the crash.
Dramatic footage published by Azerbaijani media appears to show the plane sending a large cloud of black smoke into the sky after it crashed, leaving debris scattered on the ground.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was “deeply saddened” by the accident and expressed his condolences.
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, offered their condolences following the accident, while the US Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, also expressed his country’s solidarity.
US company Lockheed Martin, maker of the C-130 Hercules, also expressed its condolences and said it was committed to assisting the investigation in any way necessary.
The C-130 is a four-engine, turboprop transport aircraft widely used by militaries around the world to transport personnel, cargo and other equipment.
