Turkey has confirmed that all 20 people aboard its military cargo aircraft that crashed in Georgia on Tuesday have died.
According to the Turkish Defence Ministry, the C-130 Hercules plane departed from Ganja Airport in western Azerbaijan and went down shortly after crossing into eastern Georgia.
“There were 20 people on board, including the flight crew,” the ministry stated.
Defence Minister Yasar Guler, in a message posted on his X account, described the victims as “our heroic comrades-in-arms,” adding that they were martyred when the aircraft crashed on November 11, 2025, while returning from Azerbaijan. His post included photographs of the 20 deceased personnel.
Although the cause of the accident remains unclear, footage shared by Azerbaijani media appeared to show the aircraft spinning mid-air and breaking apart before impact.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry confirmed the crash occurred in the Sighnaghi area, approximately five kilometres from the border with Azerbaijan. Georgian air traffic controllers said the aircraft vanished from radar shortly after entering the country’s airspace “without transmitting a distress signal,” and that emergency services alerted authorities to the incident.
The C-130 Hercules is a military transport aircraft manufactured by the US defence company Lockheed Martin.
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