Airplane Accidents Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal escaped injury when his small jet made an emergency landing at Istanbul airport. The prime minister's Gulfstream III executive jet skidded down the airport tarmac for several hundred yards after it crash-landed with its landing gear retracted shortly after takeoff, eyewitnesses said. Airport firemen dragged Ozal and other passengers out of the 19-seat plane through the cockpit window as the jet filled with smoke. Ozal was taken from the scene in a fire engine.

A U.S. F-16 fighter jet heading for a patrol over northern Iraq crashed in Turkey apparently due to engine problems. It was the first U.S. warplane to go down in more than 200,000 flights over the "no-fly" zones. The pilot, Lt. Michael A. Nelson Jr., parachuted from the plane safely and was in good health at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, said Maj. Scott Vadnais, spokesman for the allied patrols over northern Iraq.

A Turkish Airlines jet crashed Thursday as the pilot tried to land in a snowstorm despite repeated warnings from the control tower to turn back. Fifty-four people were killed. Most of the 76 passengers were military personnel flying from Ankara to the remote city of Van, about 50 miles west of Iran in the southeast, where the army is fighting Kurdish rebels. The Boeing 737 crashed two miles from the airport as it made its third attempt to land.

A Turkish military plane crashed near the capital, Ankara, killing all four people on board in the second such disaster in three days. Three Spanish technicians and one Turk died. The turboprop plane crashed near a military base just hours before a funeral for some of the 34 soldiers killed in a similar incident Wednesday. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit attended the official ceremony in Ankara along with 3,000 military officials and civilians.

A general who led last year's campaign against separatist Kurds died Wednesday when his military plane went down in flames on the outskirts of Ankara. Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin told Parliament that the plane's twin engines failed. There was no immediate evidence of sabotage. Gen. Esref Bitlis, the commander of gendarme forces, was en route to Diyarbakir, the main city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast. Four other soldiers on the plane were killed.

A Turkish F-16 warplane crashed into the Aegean Sea after Greek fighters scrambled to drive it off as an intruder, a Greek air force spokesman said in Athens. No shots were fired. In Ankara, Turkey played down the incident and said the pilot was on a training flight in international airspace when his plane crashed due to a technical error. The pilot, who ejected before the crash, was picked up by the Greek coast guard after about 30 minutes in the water, the Greek spokesman said.

Two Syrian MIG-21 jets intruded 12 miles into Turkish airspace and shot down a plane conducting a land survey, killing all five people on board, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Two fliers, a surveyor, a photographer and an official aboard the twin-propeller plane were killed, a spokesman said. In Damascus, Syria ordered an inquiry into the incident and offered condolences to the Turkish government.

A Turkish military plane crashed near the capital, Ankara, killing all four people on board in the second such disaster in three days. Three Spanish technicians and one Turk died. The turboprop plane crashed near a military base just hours before a funeral for some of the 34 soldiers killed in a similar incident Wednesday. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit attended the official ceremony in Ankara along with 3,000 military officials and civilians.

A West German chartered airliner carrying 16 people crashed in mountainous countryside near Turkey's western coast Saturday night. All aboard were feared killed, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Boeing 737, en route from Stuttgart, West Germany, to Izmir, crashed about 8:30 p.m. near Izmir, 200 miles south of Istanbul, the agency said. The plane was operated by Condor, a subsidary of the West German airline Lufthansa.

A military transport plane carrying Special Forces soldiers crashed in southern Turkey, killing all 34 people on board in one of the country's worst military air disasters. The twin-engine plane was flying from the southeastern city of Diyarbakir to the capital, Ankara, when it dove into an orchard in Malatya province, 155 miles northwest of Diyarbakir, witnesses said. The cause of the crash was under investigation, but a military official blamed a technical malfunction.

A military transport plane carrying Special Forces soldiers crashed in southern Turkey, killing all 34 people on board in one of the country's worst military air disasters. The twin-engine plane was flying from the southeastern city of Diyarbakir to the capital, Ankara, when it dove into an orchard in Malatya province, 155 miles northwest of Diyarbakir, witnesses said. The cause of the crash was under investigation, but a military official blamed a technical malfunction.

A Turkish F-16 warplane crashed into the Aegean Sea after Greek fighters scrambled to drive it off as an intruder, a Greek air force spokesman said in Athens. No shots were fired. In Ankara, Turkey played down the incident and said the pilot was on a training flight in international airspace when his plane crashed due to a technical error. The pilot, who ejected before the crash, was picked up by the Greek coast guard after about 30 minutes in the water, the Greek spokesman said.

A Turkish Airlines jet crashed Thursday as the pilot tried to land in a snowstorm despite repeated warnings from the control tower to turn back. Fifty-four people were killed. Most of the 76 passengers were military personnel flying from Ankara to the remote city of Van, about 50 miles west of Iran in the southeast, where the army is fighting Kurdish rebels. The Boeing 737 crashed two miles from the airport as it made its third attempt to land.

A general who led last year's campaign against separatist Kurds died Wednesday when his military plane went down in flames on the outskirts of Ankara. Interior Minister Ismet Sezgin told Parliament that the plane's twin engines failed. There was no immediate evidence of sabotage. Gen. Esref Bitlis, the commander of gendarme forces, was en route to Diyarbakir, the main city in the Kurdish-dominated southeast. Four other soldiers on the plane were killed.

Two Syrian MIG-21 jets intruded 12 miles into Turkish airspace and shot down a plane conducting a land survey, killing all five people on board, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Two fliers, a surveyor, a photographer and an official aboard the twin-propeller plane were killed, a spokesman said. In Damascus, Syria ordered an inquiry into the incident and offered condolences to the Turkish government.

A West German chartered airliner carrying 16 people crashed in mountainous countryside near Turkey's western coast Saturday night. All aboard were feared killed, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Boeing 737, en route from Stuttgart, West Germany, to Izmir, crashed about 8:30 p.m. near Izmir, 200 miles south of Istanbul, the agency said. The plane was operated by Condor, a subsidary of the West German airline Lufthansa.

A U.S. F-16 fighter jet heading for a patrol over northern Iraq crashed in Turkey apparently due to engine problems. It was the first U.S. warplane to go down in more than 200,000 flights over the "no-fly" zones. The pilot, Lt. Michael A. Nelson Jr., parachuted from the plane safely and was in good health at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, said Maj. Scott Vadnais, spokesman for the allied patrols over northern Iraq.

Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal escaped injury when his small jet made an emergency landing at Istanbul airport. The prime minister's Gulfstream III executive jet skidded down the airport tarmac for several hundred yards after it crash-landed with its landing gear retracted shortly after takeoff, eyewitnesses said. Airport firemen dragged Ozal and other passengers out of the 19-seat plane through the cockpit window as the jet filled with smoke. Ozal was taken from the scene in a fire engine.