Turkish Air Force C-130 breaks apart mid-air near Georgia-Azerbaijan border
November 11, 2025
Earlier today, 11 November, a Turkish Air Force C-130 Hercules crashed in the border region of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The aircraft had departed from Azerbaijan and was en route to Turkiye when the accident occurred. The plane went down near the municipality of Sighnaghi in Georgia, close to Azerbaijan’s border.
Footage of the incident shows the aircraft descending towards the ground in pieces, with the cockpit and empennage separated from the centre wing box, although the wings stayed fixed to a portion of the fuselage.
According to data from Flightradar24, the aircraft was flying under call sign TUAF543, and had departed Ganja International Airport in Azerbaijan at 10:19 UTC. The aircraft climbed continuously to its cruising altitude of 24,000 ft. The last ADS-B signal received by Flightradar24 occurred at 10:49:20 UTC.
The aircraft was registered 68-01609, and is a Lockheed Martin C-130E Hercules, originally delivered to the Saudi Royal Air Force in the late 1960s. It was taken on by Turkiye in 2010 and is 56 years old.
Defence Ministry of Turkiye says 20 personnel onboard C-130 at time of crash
The Defence Ministry of Turkiye has said 20 people, including the flight crew, were on board the Hercules at the time of the crash. Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled there were casualties, without providing details.
The President said he was “deeply saddened” by the crash and expressed his condolences for the “martyrs.”
“God willing, we will overcome this accident with the least amount of setbacks possible,” Erdogan said. “We continue to work in coordination with national authorities to reach the wreckage.”
Georgia’s Interior Ministry has confirmed the launch of an investigation.
What could cause a C-130 to break up mid-flight like this?
As with any aviation accident, the investigation will take time, but the nature of the break-up is already raising some serious questions about what went wrong.
Such an in-air separation is rare and suggests a high-energy event, either inside or outside the aircraft. It indicates a forceful explosion occurred, enough to fracture the aircraft into several pieces.
The flight was operating near a geopolitically sensitive border region, placing it in a zone where military activity is conceivable. A hostile hit cannot be discounted entirely from a location-risk perspective.
Many thoughts may turn to the accidental shoot-down of Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 in December 2024. The Embraer E190 was severely damaged by a Russian surface-to-air missile, crash landing near Grozy in Kazakhstan. Putin later admitted a Russian missile was responsible.
However, as yet, there have been no reports of missiles tracked or any military activity in the area, and no actors have come forward to claim or deny involvement.
Once the wreckage is found and inspected, the cause of the C-130 mid-air break-up will likely become clearer.
