The Turkish defense ministry said on Wednesday that 20 soldiers were killed in the crash of its military aircraft in Georgia a day earlier, as inspectors continued to seek clues what caused the cargo plane to go down.
The C-130 plane took off from Azerbaijan for Türkiye and crashed in Georgia on Tuesday.
Ankara has not yet provided a reason for its deadliest military incident since 2020. It said Turkish and Georgian authorities began inspections at the site, in the Sighnaghu municipality of Georgia's Kakheti district, at 0330 GMT on Wednesday.
Initial footage from the scene showed chunks of twisted metal strewn across a grassy knoll, while unverified footage on social media showed the plane breaking apart in mid-air and then corckscrewing towards the earth in a blaze.
On Wednesday, the Turkish Defense Ministry released a list of the 20 soldiers killed in the crash.
“Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred on November 11, 2025, when our C-130 military cargo plane, which had taken off from Azerbaijan en route to our country, crashed near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border,” Defense Minister Yasar Guler said in a message posted on X, together with photographs of the military personnel that were killed.
On Tuesday, Türkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency quoted the Georgian aviation authority as saying that contact with the plane was lost a few minutes after it had entered Georgia’s airspace. The plane had not issued a distress signal, it said.
The leaders of Azerbaijan and Georgia, as well as the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, have all conveyed condolences. Tom Barrack, the US Ambassador to Türkiye, has also expressed his country's solidarity with Turkey after the crash.
Guler on Tuesday spoke to his Georgian and Azerbaijani counterparts, as well as Azerbaijan's chief of staff, to discuss search and rescue operations.
US firm Lockheed Martin, which makes the C-130 Hercules that is widely used by air forces around the world, expressed its condolences and said it was committed to helping Türkiye in any way during the investigation.
The C-130 Hercules is a cargo, troop and equipment carrier aircraft. It is described as a four-engine, turboprop military transport aircraft that can make use of unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings.
Its versatile airframe has enabled it to be used for other purposes as well, including as a gunship and for airborne assault and reconnaissance operations. It is now viewed as one of the main tactical airlifters for many militaries.
