2 martyred in western Turkey military aircraft crash

By Muhammed Boztepe and Ramazan Ercan

ANKARA / IZMIR, Turkey

Two pilots were martyred when a military training plane crashed in Turkey’s Aegean region on Friday, according to the Turkish General Staff.

According to a General Staff statement, the plane crashed in Cigli in the Izmir province.

“Our training aircraft, which left the Cigli/Izmir 2nd Main Jet Base Command today as part of a planned training flight, crashed. Two of our valiant soldiers were martyred,” the statement said.

The SF-260D training plane took off at 10.26 a.m. (0726GMT), while contact with the aircraft was lost at around 10.49 a.m. (0749GMT), it added.

According to a statement issued by the Izmir governor's office, the plane wreckage and the bodies of the two pilots were found in a vacant area in the Tuzcullu neighborhood, three kilometers north of the base.

"The reason for the crash of the training aircraft which departed from the 2nd Main Jet Base Command has not yet been determined," the statement added.

An investigation has begun with a team already on the scene, the General Staff said.