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Turkey on Wednesday said 20 of its soldiers were killed when a military plane crashed in Georgia the previous day, setting the scene for the NATO member’s war since 2020.
An IC-130 Cargo Fitle left Azerbaijan for Turkey and broke down in Georgia on Tuesday, leaving chunks of twisted metal strewn across the grass.
Ankara did not give a reason for the accident, but said that the Turkish and Georgian authorities began an inspection of the area, located in the Shibule Municipality of the State of Georgia, earlier on Wednesday.
Footage from the site near the border with Azerbaijan showed ambulances, fire engines and military vehicles in the area around the charred fuselage, with rescue teams and orders to scan the grounds.
Unverified social media footage on Tuesday showed the plane breaking apart in mid-air and ejecting from the ground.
On Wednesday, the Turkish defense ministry released a list of 20 soldiers killed.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s air-run agency cited the Georgian Aviation Authority as saying that communication with the plane was lost minutes after it entered Georgia’s airspace. The plane had never released a trace of distress, he said.
C-130 military cargo planes are widely used by the Turkish armed forces to transport personnel and manage logistical operations.
Turkey and Azerbaijan maintain close military cooperation.
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, all offered their condolences. Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey, also expressed his country’s solidarity with Turkey after the accident.
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler on Tuesday spoke with his Georgian and Azerbaijani counterparts, as well as Azerbaijan’s chief of staff, to discuss search and rescue operations.
A trusted network plane
The US firm Lockheed Martin LMT.N, which makes the C-130 Hercules that is widely used by air forces around the world, expressed respect for Turkey in any way during the investigation.
The C-130 Hercules is a Cargo, Troop and Service Carrier Carrier. It is described as a four-turbitoprop military transport aircraft that uses unprepared runways for takeoff and landing.
Its flexible airframe enabled it to be used for other purposes as well, including as a gun and for air attack and reconnaissance missions. Now it is considered as one of the main aircraft of many strategic aircraft.
Old vehicles
Some analysts have said that footage and photos show the plane to be down-flight, adding that Turkey’s fleet of C-130s is old and needs to be updated, despite the aircraft’s modernization.
“The footage appears to show the tail section separating from the flight deck and fuel streaming from the wingtip valves, suggesting that the crew dumped emergency fuel,” said Jarrod Phillips, a former US Air Force C-130 technician.
FlightTradar24 and two Turkish defense analysts say the plane that crashed is 57 years old and entered the Turkish Air Force in 2010.
