On Tuesday, November 11, 2025, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Turkey announced on social media a tragic crash of a medium transport aircraft, the Lockheed C-130EM Hercules, which was flying from Azerbaijan over Georgia.
Illustrative Photo: Michał Adamowski, MILMAG
The military transport aircraft C-130, flying from Azerbaijan to Turkey, crashed on the Georgian-Azerbaijani border. Search and rescue operations have been launched in cooperation with the authorities of Azerbaijan and Georgia, announced the Turkish Ministry in a brief press statement.
According to emerging reports, the crashed aircraft was a C-130EM Hercules (L-382), which was 56.9 years old at the time of the accident. Between December 1968 and November 2002, it served as a C-130E with the Royal Saudi Air Force (Al-Quwwat Al-Jawiyah Al-Malakiyah as-Su’udiyah) under registration number 1609, before being acquired by the Turkish Air Force (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri) as 68-01609 and subsequently modernized.
According to data available on commercial flight tracking services such as ADS-B Exchange and the Flightradar24 application, the aircraft reportedly took off at 10:19 UTC under the callsign TuAF543 from Ganja International Airport in western Azerbaijan. It was heading northeast, then northwest, and finally west over Georgia on a return flight to Turkey. Communication was later lost, and the aircraft crashed in southern Georgia at 14:19.
Photo: Flightradar24
According to videos circulating on social media, the aircraft broke apart in mid-air into at least three pieces. The footage shows the wings with the spar detached from the fuselage, as well as the front section of the aircraft falling vertically toward the ground (the rear fuselage and tail section are not visible in the recordings). It is unlikely that the five crew members and fifteen passengers survived the crash.
According to Turkish media reports, Turkish soldiers who took part in the military parade in Baku on November 8 to mark Victory Day over Armenia may have been on board.
At the time of the incident, Turkey operated 11 C-130EM and 6 C-130BM aircraft, which have been undergoing modernization since 2008 under the Erciyes program, aimed at extending their service life until 2040. Meanwhile, on October 16 this year, the Turkish Ministry of Defense officially confirmed the purchase of 12 ex-British C-130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft with extended fuselages. These will complement the current fleet of 10 Airbus A400M-180 Atlas and 41 CASA/IPTN CN-235 transport planes.
Azerbaycan’dan ülkemize gelmek üzere havalanan bir C130 askerî kargo uçağımız Gürcistan-Azerbaycan sınırında düşmüştür. Arama kurtarma çalışmalarına Azerbaycan ve Gürcistan makamları ile koordineli olarak başlanmıştır.
Kamuoyuna saygıyla duyurulur.#MillîSavunmaBakanlığı
— T.C. Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) November 11, 2025
More visuals of the disintegrated debris of Turkish Air Force Hercules C130 (68-01609) falling from the sky.#aircraft #accident https://t.co/p7cDrP7gQW pic.twitter.com/kpGnb485ut
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) November 11, 2025
🇹🇷🇬🇪 | First images are circulating in Georgian media reportedly showing the crash site and debris of the Turkish Air Force C-130 Hercules. pic.twitter.com/9MUbfCIOP5
— Visioner (@visionergeo) November 11, 2025
We’re following reports of a Lockheed C-130E Hercules, belonging to the Turkish Air Force, that is suspected to have crashed in Georgia, close to the border of Azerbaijan. Evidence points to the aircraft being #TUAF543, which departed Ganja Airport in Azerbaijan at 10:19 UTC.… pic.twitter.com/xqrEWbMiRk
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) November 11, 2025
