Search efforts underway as Turkish cargo aircraft goes down near Tbilisi

The Turkish Ministry of National Defence announced that a C-130 cargo aircraft flying from Azerbaijan to Türkiye has crashed in Georgia. Search and rescue operations have begun in coordination with the Georgian authorities.

On President Ilham Aliyev’s instructions, Prime Minister Ali Asadov contacted the Georgian Prime Minister regarding the crash of the Turkish aircraft.
Prime Minister Ali Asadov stated that Azerbaijan is ready to provide all necessary support for eliminating the consequences of the crash, conducting search and rescue operations, deploying the relevant personnel of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan to the area, and taking any other required measures.

President Erdo?an noted that Türkiye is working in coordination with Georgia to locate the remains of the crashed military transport aircraft.

The soldiers on board were those who had participated in the parade held in Baku. They were returning to Istanbul.

Military channels report that an American C-130J-30 aircraft was flying near Tbilisi. It was accompanied by an unidentified drone and a helicopter. They reportedly remained in the air for about 40 minutes.