The plane had taken off from Ganja airport in western Azerbaijan on Tuesday afternoon but crashed shortly after crossing the border into eastern Georgia, the defence ministry said after the incident.

It said there were 20 people on board, including the flight crew.

"Our heroic comrades-in-arms were martyred on 11 November 2025 due to the crash of our C-130 military cargo aircraft, which had taken off from Azerbaijan to return to Turkey," Defence Minister Yasar Guler said in a statement posted on his X account alongside 20 photographs of those who died.

Turkey has not said what caused the accident but dramatic footage taken by eyewitnesses and published by Azerbaijani media appeared to show the plane spinning horizontally alongside several bits of debris as it fell.

Georgia's interior ministry had confirmed the plane went down in the Sighnaghi area, "about five kilometres (3.1 miles) from Georgia's state border" with Azerbaijan.

Georgian air traffic control said the plane had disappeared from its radar shortly after entering its airspace "without transmitting a distress signal" and that it had been alerted to the crash by the emergency services.

The C-130 Hercules military cargo plane is made by US manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

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