A Turkish Army military helicopter crashed last night during a night-time training flight in Ankara with five people on board, although there were no fatalities, according to the latest information on the air crash – the causes of which remain unknown – released in the last few hours by the Ministry of National Defence of Turkey.
According to the Turkish newspaper Milliyet, the Ministry of National Defence issued a new statement on the incident through Rear Admiral Zeki Aktürk, the ministry’s press adviser and spokesperson, who explained at the weekly press conference that a CH-47 heavy-lift transport helicopter, belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces, crashed on the night of 21 April after making a hard landing in the Temelli area, west of the Turkish capital, during a night-time training mission.
Following the incident, search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the crash site and the relevant investigations were launched. Despite the circumstances of the accident, a spokesperson for the Turkish army confirmed that the five military personnel on board are safe, although they sustained injuries considered to be minor and were taken to a hospital for examination.
“All personnel are safe,” stated the Turkish Ministry of Defence in an official statement, adding that the cause of the accident will be determined once the ongoing investigation is concluded. According to local authorities, the five occupants of the crashed helicopter were taken to hospital as a precautionary measure, although none of them suffered serious injuries. The area where the aircraft crashed was cordoned off by Turkish gendarmerie units, whilst military teams and rescue personnel began conducting on-site inspections to locate any wreckage.
This helicopter crash comes months after a C-130 military transport aircraft flying from Azerbaijan to Turkey crashed last November in the Georgian municipality of Sighnaghi, on the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan, killing all 20 military personnel on board. A recent forensic report published in early April and compiled by the gendarmerie ruled out the possibility that the Turkish plane had been attacked or had been the victim of sabotage, as no evidence of external interference or explosives was found.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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