Turkiye temporarily grounds C-130 planes

Ankara: Turkiye has temporarily grounded its C-130 military cargo planes as a precaution, the Defence Ministry announced on Thursday, following a crash in Georgia that claimed the lives of all 20 military personnel on board.

The cargo plane was flying from Ganja, Azerbaijan, to Turkiye when it crashed in Georgia’s Sighnaghi municipality, close to the Azerbaijani border, on Tuesday. The cause of the crash is being investigated.

The military personnel were part of a unit responsible for the maintenance and repair of Turkish F-16 jets that had flown to Azerbaijan to participate in that country’s Victory Day celebrations. The event marked Azerbaijan’s 2020 military success over Armenia for control of the Karabakh region, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict that had lasted nearly four decades.

The National Defence Ministry said C-130 flights were temporarily suspended to allow the aircraft to undergo detailed technical inspections. Only those who

successfully pass the checks would be allowed to resume flying, the ministry said in a statement.agencies