What caused the Turkish C-130 plane crash? Experts weigh in on incident that killed 20 Nato soldiers
A Turkish military cargo plane crashed in Georgia on Tuesday, killing all 20 on board in the Nato member’s deadliest military incident for half a decade.
The C-130 cargo aircraft had only just departed Azerbaijan for Turkey before it came plummeting down. Footage posted on social media showed the plane breaking apart in midair, sending its parts hurtling towards the earth.
But the incident remains shrouded in mystery, with Ankara yet to provide a reason for the crash. Experts and analysts have raised questions over how the plane appeared to shatter into pieces so quickly.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday authorities had found the black box after the crash in the Sighnaghu municipality of Georgia’s Kakheti district. A 46-person team was dispatched from Turkey to carry out search and rescue operations alongside Georgian authorities, he added.
The Independent has spoken with experts, including a former C-130 pilot, about what could have caused the crash.
The C-130 Hercules which crashed in Georgia was a 57-year-old military aircraft, which has recently been flying regularly.
The model, which is used widely by air forces around the world, is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft capable of operating from unprepared runways.
FlightRadar24 and two Turkish defence analysts said the plane that crashed entered the Turkish Air Force in 2010.
Footage of the crash, which shows pieces of the plane plunging vertically into a mountainous area of Georgia, has raised key questions over why the plane came plunging down.
It comes weeks after Russian president Vladimir Putin admitted that his country’s air defences were responsible for shooting down an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed in Kazakhstan 10 months earlier on Christmas Day, killing 38. But there have been no indications so far – or explicit accusations – of Russian involvement.
With the information currently available, indications suggest that something happened to the aircraft “very, very rapidly”.
This is according to Daniel Gustafsson, a former airline pilot and Aviation Content Specialist at Flightradar24.
“We know that they did not have time to call for a May Day. We don’t see any indication of them using the transponder to call for an emergency as well. And as it was immediately put in a free fall, it indicates that something happened very, very, very rapidly.”
If it had been a less-immediate mechanical issue there “would have been a distress signal for sure, and they would have had the time to do it”, he said.
