Everything happened in 5 seconds...No Distress signal, the wreckage of the crashed Turkish C-130 is in Turkey.

• The wreckage of the C-130 military cargo aircraft that crashed on the Azerbaijan-Georgia border, has been largely brought to Turkey by a special team using trucks.
• The wreckage pieces will be examined at the 2nd Air Maintenance Factory Directorate in Kayseri.
• Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler announced that according to preliminary findings, the tail broke first and then the aircraft was divided into three.
• The recovered black box investigation is being carried out by TAI and will take two months.

On November 11, 2025, the Turkish Air Force C-130EM Hercules (68-1609) aircraft, which took off from Ganja, Azerbaijan and disintegrated in the air about half an hour later, crashed near the Kakheti region in Georgian airspace.

According to Turkish media, after a thorough inspection of the area, the wreckage was carefully loaded onto trucks. Most of the C-130 wreckage is already in Turkey.

They will be investigated at the 2nd Directorate of the Aircraft Maintenance Plant in Kayseri Province, which is subordinate to the Directorate of Military Factories of the Ministry of National Defense.

• The 1968-built aircraft entered the inventory in 2010, was modernized in 2014, and had its last maintenance in September-October 2025.
• Experts state that the tail break causes the aircraft to lose control of rudder and altitude instantly.
• According to visuals of the wreckage and accident available, this process took about 5 seconds and the crew lost control of the plane before they could send an emergency signal.
• A team of 46 investigators reached the area soon after the crash and documented pieces of the aircraft across a wide field. 

Sequence of events were so fast, as per Georgia’s interior ministry, its air traffic control systems lost contact with the plane without receiving any emergency call and that first responders located the site after reports from the area.

The aircraft was carrying maintenance materials (6 tons) for F-16s participating in the Karabakh Victory ceremony in Azerbaijan. Some industry insiders believe that the load pallet fixed at the rear may have put extra load on the queue in a sudden maneuver, and the load and trim issue, if any, will be clarified with the black box data.

On futher development on this, Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc.-TÜSAS continues to decipher the black box. The causes of the crash will be established after analyzing the data of the recorders and the wreckage of the aircraft.

Tukiye's National Defense Minister Yaşar Güler told reporters after a cabinet meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that it would take at least two months to decrypt the flight recorders and obtain preliminary results.

"According to preliminary data, although they are not yet accurate, the tail section fell off first. Then it was divided into three parts. This will be confirmed by the results of the black box analysis," the minister explained.

Turkey’s defense ministry said the aircraft disappeared from radar without sending a distress signal and crashed near the Georgian town of Sighnaghi. 

At the same time, Turkish media, citing government sources, published new details about how the disaster happened. According to them, the plane crash occurred in just 5 seconds.

After the separation of the tail section, the wings and nose of the aircraft began to rotate uncontrollably. It is assumed that under the influence of strong vibration, the nose section separated from the fuselage.

Experts note that when the tail section comes off, the loss of controllability is inevitable. In such conditions, under the influence of strong air resistance, the nose and wings can collapse, and the engines can separate from the hull.

The conclusion that the tail section separated first is based on the analysis of video recordings of eyewitnesses only. No reports have been released in this regard.

However, to decode the fatal crash, the Turkish authorities will seek answer: why did the tail section of the plane come off?!  As of November 12, the Ministry of National Defense stopped all C-130 flights as a precaution. 

Analysts note that rare C-130 breakups have occurred in other countries when propeller blades or wing structures failed due to fatigue. A US Marine Corps KC-130T broke up in flight in Mississippi in 2017 after a blade fractured and cut through the fuselage.

No Government or independent source has reported evidence of a missile strike, explosive residue or hostile action so far.