Two dead in Turkish warplane crash
March 5, 2015The warplane, an F-4E 2020 Phantom, went down near the city of Konya in the Anatolia region nearly an hour after taking off from Eskisehir airbase on a morning training flight, the Turkish military said.
"It crashed in Konya for unknown reasons. The two pilots are dead. An investigation into the causes of the accident has been started," a statement from the Chief of Staff said.
The crash comes as Turkey and Azerbaijan hold joint military maneuvers in Konya, but it was not immediately clear whether the jet had been taking part in the exercise.
Thursday's accident comes just a week after two military reconnaissance planes crashed in Malatya Province, killing all four pilots. An inquiry into that crash is already under way.
Turkey has the second largest military in the NATO alliance.
tj/kms (Reuters, AP)