Number of victims still unclear NATO plane crashes in Georgia - Turkey confirms accident
A Turkish military transporter has crashed on Georgian territory after taking off from Azerbaijan. Video footage shows a spiral descent, with a cloud of smoke rising from the ground. It is still unclear how many people were on board.
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- A Turkish C-130 transport plane crashed near the Georgian-Azerbaijani border on Tuesday after taking off from Azerbaijan.
- According to the Turkish Ministry of Defense, search and rescue operations are underway together with the Georgian authorities; information on the crew and cause is still missing.
A Turkish Air Force military aircraft crashed over Georgia on Tuesday. The Ministry of Defense in Ankara announced on X that the plane was a C-130 that had taken off from Azerbaijan and was on its way back to Turkey.
The search and rescue is being coordinated with the Georgian authorities; further details on the number of crew and cause of the accident are still pending. The incident occurred not far from the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Georgian media located the crash in the Rustavi region, around 160 kilometers from the Russian border as the crow flies. According to Azerbaijani media, the Georgian Interior Minister was on his way to the scene of the accident. It remains to be seen what caused the accident - weather, technology or an operating error are being investigated.
It was only in September that NATO sent F-16s to Poland to intercept pressure wave-powered drones - the region regularly sees military flight movements and exercises. The current accident is not directly related to this, but underlines the importance of the air transport chains between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.