1972 Adana Turkish Airlines DC-9 crash
Douglas DC-9-32 · Controlled flight into terrain
From Kandara Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Esenboğa International Airport (ESB)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 1 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 5
- Survivors
- 4
- 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
- 4
- 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
Douglas DC-9-32
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-9
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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-JAC
- Operator
- Turkish Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- 1
- Route
- From Kandara Airport, Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaTo Esenboğa International Airport (ESB)
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 21 January 1972, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 operated by Turkish Airlines crashed on approach while making an emergency landing at Adana Airport. The aircraft was en-route from Kandara Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, with a stopover at Damascus Airport in Syria. There were only five crew members on board as the aircraft was being repositioned after carrying passengers to Hajj the day before. After taking off from Damascus for the second leg of the flight, the plane experienced technical problems and attempted to divert to Adana. The pilots decided to go-around during the first landing attempt due to poor visibility. During the second attempt, the plane flew too low and crashed in a field 6 km away from the airport, and subsequently caught fire. One of the five crew members died in the flames, while four others were injured.
Accident
The aircraft was returning back to Ankara, Turkey, without passengers from Jeddah after carrying pilgrims to Hajj the night before. During the second leg of the flight towards Ankara, the pilots reported to controllers that they were experiencing technical problems with the aircraft and decided to divert to Adana Airport for an emergency landing. It was snowing at the time of the accident, a condition which was rare for Adana. Due to the poor visibility, the pilots initiated a go-around after failing to see the runway. During the second approach, the aircraft was too low on altitude and struck the ground at 04:24 local time (02:24 GMT), 6 km away from the airport. The plane lost its landing gear and slid a short distance before catching fire.
Investigation and cause
Cause and aftermath
While being treated at the hospital in Adana, captain İpek testified that the aircraft suffered from an engine failure, and that they had lost communication with the airport shortly after declaring their emergency. After losing altitude due to the poor weather conditions and limited visibility in the night, they attempted to locate an area that seemed to be flat enough to perform an emergency landing. According to İhsan Göksaran, the assistant general director of Turkish Airlines, an initial report was sent to experts in Ankara shortly after the accident, who suspected a cabin pressurization problem.
In 1975, Gündüz Sevilgen, a member of the 15th Parliament of Turkey from the National Salvation Party, wrote several questions to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey related to Turkish Airlines, including the causes of accidents. He received a response from the Minister of Transport, Sabahattin Özbek, on 18 March. The response included a short list of causes of all Turkish Airlines crashes to date. The cause for the Adana crash in the response was:
According to a Hürriyet article from 1999, there was a malfunction in the electrical system of the aircraft. In 2020, Sözcü reported that they could not find any record of the pilots being prosecuted after the accident.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1972 Adana Turkish Airlines DC-9 crash” (revision 1371282390, 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: 1972 Adana Turkish Airlines DC-9 crash
- Revision
- 1371282390 · 2026-08-25 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q113876502
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1972 Adana Turkish Airlines DC-9 crash" (page 71607919, revision 1371282390)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- 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)
- Operation
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.