Turkey on Wednesday confirmed that all 20 people on board a military cargo plane that crashed in Georgia had died. The C-130 Hercules aircraft was returning from Azerbaijan when it went down shortly after crossing the Georgian border.
According to Turkey’s Defence Ministry, the plane took off from Ganja Airport in western Azerbaijan on Tuesday afternoon. Moments after entering Georgia’s airspace, it crashed in the Sighnaghi area, approximately five kilometres from the Azerbaijani border.
Defence Minister Yasar Guler announced the tragedy in a statement shared on his X (formerly Twitter) account, describing the victims as “heroic comrades-in-arms.” He also posted photographs of the 20 personnel who lost their lives in the incident.
“Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred on 11 November 2025 due to the crash of our C-130 military cargo aircraft, which had taken off from Azerbaijan to return to Turkey,” Guler wrote.
Eyewitness footage published by Azerbaijani media showed the plane spiralling out of control, trailing debris as it descended before impact. Georgian authorities said the aircraft disappeared from radar screens without transmitting a distress signal, and emergency services were the first to alert air traffic control to the crash site.
The C-130 Hercules, manufactured by US aerospace company Lockheed Martin, is widely used for military transport operations and is known for its reliability. However, the cause of this particular crash has not yet been determined.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry has launched an investigation in cooperation with Turkish authorities to determine what led to the disaster.
The crash marks one of the deadliest military aviation accidents involving Turkish forces in recent years and has prompted an outpouring of condolences from regional leaders and the international community.
Flags across Turkish military installations have been lowered to half-mast in honour of the fallen servicemen.
