A Turkish Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130E Hercules transport aircraft has crashed in Georgia.
The aircraft, flight TUAF543, had departed Ganja International Airport in Azerbaijan at 10:19 UTC on 11 November 2025, with the Flightradar24 website stating that the last ADS-B signal it received from the aircraft occurred at 10:49:20 UTC.
However, video footage on social media showed the wing section of a four-engined aircraft spiralling out of the sky. If this was footage of the demise of flight TUAF543, then it indicates that the aircraft broke into at least three at pieces at altitude. This could potentially have been caused by the failure of one of the C-130’s inboard engines.
Flightradar24 had tracked TUAF543 flying at a barometric altitude of 7,315 m and at a ground speed of 519 km/h prior to its loss.
The official X account of the Turkish Ministry of National Defence (MND) confirmed the loss of the Hercules, posting after the incident on 11 November, “One of our C-130 military cargo aircraft, which was taking off from Azerbaijan to come to our country, has crashed at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border. Search and rescue operations have begun in co-ordination with the authorities of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
There was no indication of how many crew were aboard the stricken aircraft.
Prior to the loss of this C-130E the Turkish Air Force had operated a fleet of 18 C-130B/E aircraft, with in mid-October 2025 the MND confirmed it is acquiring 12 ex-Royal Air Force C-130J-10 transports.
Türkiye’s first C-130Es entered service from 1964, but the crashed aircraft’s registration number, according to Flightradar24, was 68-01609. The Dutch Aviation Society website Scramble reported that this indicated the aircraft was a former Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) C-130E that underwent the ERCIYES upgrade at 2’nci Hava Bakım Fabrika Müdürlüğü (2nd Air Maintenance Factory Directorate) at Kayseri-Erkilet. The Turkish Air Force purchased six C-130Es from the RSAF in in 2010 and these were delivered between 20 November 2011 and 21 January 2012.
The ERCIYES modernisation programme was intended to keep Türkiye’s C-130B/E aircraft flying until the 2040s.
