A farewell ceremony is being held at the Mürted Air Base in Ankara for the 20 soldiers who were martyred in the crash of the C-130 cargo aircraft in Georgia, APA’s Türkiye bureau reports.
The ceremony is attended by the soldiers’ families and relatives, as well as politicians and the senior command staff of the Turkish Armed Forces.
Note that 19 of the soldiers will be buried today. The funeral of pilot Lieutenant Colonel Gökhan Korkmaz will be held in Istanbul on Saturday.
As a reminder, on November 11, a Turkish C-130 military transport aircraft flying from Azerbaijan to Türkiye crashed in Georgian territory. All 20 soldiers on board lost their lives in the accident. According to the Turkish Ministry of National Defense, the C-130 military cargo aircraft that crashed in Georgia did not carry any military ammunition. The ministry stated that the crew on board consisted of the technical team responsible for servicing the F-16s that had traveled to Azerbaijan for Victory Day events. The Ministry of Defense also reported that the C-130 aircraft made its last contact with Tbilisi at 13:50, saying: “On November 11, the C-130E aircraft with tail number 68-1609 belonging to the 12th Air Transport Main Base Command took off from Kayseri at 09:02 to transport personnel and equipment to Ganja. It took off again at 13:15 to deliver technical maintenance equipment for the F-16s participating in the Victory Day events in Azerbaijan. At 13:50, final radio contact was made with Tbilisi, and communication was lost thereafter.”
The ministry stated that the cause of the crash is still unknown: “For reasons not yet determined, the aircraft crashed south of Tbilisi, near the Azerbaijan–Georgia border.”
The ministry also addressed claims that another helicopter was present in the area at that time, clarifying that the helicopters belonged to Georgia.
“There is no such thing as an ‘old aircraft’; there are only poorly maintained aircraft. The aircraft in question receives regular technical maintenance in our country. C-130 aircraft are currently in active use in more than 70 countries,” the Turkish Ministry of Defense noted in response to claims about the C-130 aircraft having reached the end of its service life.
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