The Turkish defence ministry stated on Thursday that it is too early to determine what caused a military cargo aircraft crash in Georgia this week, in which 20 soldiers were killed. Inspections are continuing.

The C-130 cargo plane had left Azerbaijan to Turkey when it crashed on Tuesday. This incident marks the NATO member's most military deaths since 2020.

The ministry told a press conference in Ankara that the plane was purchased from Saudi Arabia in 2012. It had undergone necessary modernisations and its last maintenance took place a month earlier. The aircraft was not armed on its last flight.

The ministry did say that all flights planned by Turkey's C-130 aircraft had been suspended until inspections were completed, and the black box from the crashed plane is being analysed.

(source: Reuters)