KONYA, Turkey
Two pilots were killed when a Turkish fighter jet crashed in Turkey's central Konya province Thursday morning, Turkish military announced.
The crash involved an F-4E 2020 training aircraft that took off at 8.58 a.m. from Eskisehir province and crashed at 9.50 a.m. at a shooting range in Konya because of an unknown reason, the General Staff said.
The pilots were identified as Mustafa Tanis and Mustafa Delikanli.
The wreckage was located around the Ortakonak neighborhood in central Karatay district, Konya Governor Muammer Erol said.
Turkey's disaster and emergency management teams along with ambulances immediately reached the crash site; military officials also examined the wreckage.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Ozel to get details of the crash and expressed his condolences for the loss of lives.
Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc and the main opposition Republican People's Party or the CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu also offered their condolences to the victims’ families and Turkish army.
This is the second aircraft accident in the last two weeks.
Four pilots were killed on Feb. 24 when two military RF-4E aircrafts lost contact during reconnaissance flights in the Akcadag district of Turkey's southeastern Malatya province.
Sezgin Tanrikulu, deputy chairman of CHP, alleged that the incidents were the result of negligence. "The need to sell out all such planes has been voiced many times. It is all a neglect of duty that such planes are still used for training," Tanrikulu said.
Meanwhile, Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Minister Lutfi Elvan said that all precautions were taken to prevent such incidents.
