A Turkish private "Atlasjet" plane crashed in Keciborlu town of
Mediterranean province of Isparta at early hours on Friday, killing
56 people aboard, the semi-official Anatolia news agency
reported.
"Nobody survived the crash," Atlasjet CEO Tuncay Doganer was
quoted as saying in the Turkish largest city of Istanbul.
The plane with 49 passengers and seven crew members on board was
en route from Istanbul to Isparta. It took off from Istanbul's
Ataturk Airport at 12:51 a.m. (1051 GMT).
According to executives of Ataturk Airport, they lost
communication with the Atlasjet aircraft around 1:36 a.m. (2336 GMT
Thursday), when it was about to land at Isparta's Suleyman Demirel
Airport.
"When the aircraft approached the airport to land, the tower
gave permission but then lost communication with the plane," Tayyar
Sasmaz, the deputy governor of Isparta, told reporters.
Sasmaz said the aircraft's image was lost in the radar between
1:45 and 2:00 a.m. when it was about to land at the airport.
Relatives of the passengers aboard the plane rushed to Ataturk
Airport and Suleyman Demirel Airport immediately after the
crash.
Meanwhile, Isparta Governor Semsettin Uzun said military planes
spotted the exact place of the wreckage on 1,830-meter Turbetepe
region in Keciborlu's Cukuroren village, however search and rescue
teams have not reached the area.
Gendarmery forces and rescue teams are trying to reach the scene
of the crash on foot, whereas ambulances and civil defense teams
have been dispatched to Cukuroren village.
A Gulf Air passenger jet with 121 people on board made an
emergency landing at the Ataturk Airport in Turkey's largest city
of Istanbul due to technical problems on Nov. 21.
Also earlier this month, two Turkish pilots were killed when a
military training aircraft crashed in the western city of
Izmir.
On May 26, 2003, a Ukrainian plane carrying 75 people, including
62Spanish peacekeeping soldiers returning home from Afghanistan and
12 crew members, crashed near Macka town of northern province of
Trabzon in Black Sea region of Turkey.
On Jan. 9, 2003, a total of 75 people were killed when a RJ-100
plane of the Turkish Airlines crashed at Diyarbakir airport in the
southeastern part of Turkey, and five survived the accident.
On May 16, 2001, all 37 people on board were killed when a
Turkish military cargo plane crashed in eastern Turkey.
On Dec. 29, 1994, a total of 54 people died and 22 others were
wounded in the crash of a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-400 passenger
plane in eastern Turkey.
(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2007)
