Turkish Airlines Flight 278
Boeing 737-4Y0 · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Esenboğa International Airport (ESB) to Van Ferit Melen Airport (VAN)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA95WA012
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 57 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 76
- Survivors
- 19
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 19
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Boeing 737-4Y0
- Flight
- TK278
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- TC-JES
- Operator
- Turkish Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 57
- Route
- From Esenboğa International Airport (ESB)To Van Ferit Melen Airport (VAN)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Turkish Airlines Flight 278, operated by a Boeing 737-400 registered TC-JES and named Mersin, was a domestic scheduled flight from Ankara Esenboğa Airport to Van Ferit Melen Airport in eastern Turkey that crashed on 29 December 1994 during its final approach to land in driving snow. Five of the seven crew and 52 of the 69 passengers lost their lives, while 2 crew members and 17 passengers survived with serious injuries.
Crash
At 15:30 EET (13:30 UTC) on 29 December 1994, the plane struck a hill near Edremit district of Van Province at 5700 ft above mean sea level around 4 km from Van Airport while on a third VOR-DME approach to the Runway 03 in bad weather, despite a warning from air traffic control not to attempt any more approaches in a snowstorm. The visibility was 900 m reducing to 300 m in heavy driving snow.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Turkish Airlines Flight 278” (revision 1365837226, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Turkish Airlines Flight 278
- Article
- Turkish Airlines Flight 278
- Revision
- 1365837226 · 2026-07-24 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2254605
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA95WA012
- Event ID
- 20001206X02711
- Case number
- DCA95WA012
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Turkish Airlines Flight 278" (page 20916812, revision 1365837226); merged with NTSB case DCA95WA012 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA95WA012
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Wikipedia article (5 of 7 crew + 52 of 69 passengers), consistent with the BAAA record '57 killed' and ASN's occupant count of 76, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_278
- Ground fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): Wikipedia article (5 of 7 crew + 52 of 69 passengers), consistent with the BAAA record '57 killed' and ASN's occupant count of 76, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines_Flight_278
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Turkish Airlines Flight 278" and NTSB case DCA95WA012, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Death toll settled: the NTSB record (DCA95WA012) gives 0 and the Wikipedia article 57; Wikipedia article (5 of 7 crew + 52 of 69 passengers), consistent with the BAAA record '57 killed' and ASN's occupant count of 76 gives 57. 57 of 76 aboard died and 19 survived. The NTSB's 0 is a notification-record error. The Turkish final report and the full ASN record could not be accessed. (Medium confidence, for the reason given.)
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.