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1957 Turkish Air Force F-84 Thunderjet crash

25 Jul 1957 · Bursa, Turkey

Republic F-84G Thunderjet · Crashed into a housing block in the city center of Bursa. 25 houses burned down and killed 23 people

From Balıkesir Airport (BZI) to an unrecorded destination

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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
Unknown
Ground fatalities
Unknown
Occupants
Unknown
Survivors
Unknown
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
Unknown
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
Military

Republic F-84G Thunderjet

Aircraft type
Republic F-84
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
51-11176
Onboard fatalities
2
Route
From Balıkesir Airport (BZI)To not recorded

Approximate · Estimated position: Bursa, the place the Wikipedia article names. Not the accident site.

From the Wikipedia article

On 25 July 1957, a Republic F-84G Thunderjet operated by the Turkish Air Force crashed in the city center of Bursa in northwestern Turkey. Up to twenty-nine people died, sixteen people were injured and twenty-five houses burned down.

Flight and crash

A Republic F-84G Thunderjet (registration number 51-11176) of the Turkish Air Force departed from Balıkesir Airport on 25 July 1957. Inside were a pilot and co-pilot who were doing a training flight. After a failure there was an explosion. The pilot escaped at a low altitude with his ejection seat, but his parachute did’t open. Without the pilot, the burning jet fighter flew on and crashed into a housing block in the city center of Bursa and exploded.

Twenty-five houses, shops and hotels caught fire, four of which burned down completely. Rescue workers saved the wounded and took the bodies from the burning houses. It took several hours before the fires were extinguished.

Text from the Wikipedia article “1957 Turkish Air Force F-84 Thunderjet crash” (revision 1351957562, 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: 1957 Turkish Air Force F-84 Thunderjet crash
Article
1957 Turkish Air Force F-84 Thunderjet crash
Revision
1351957562 · 2026-05-01 · retrieved 2026-09-18
Wikidata
Q123221182
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 "1957 Turkish Air Force F-84 Thunderjet crash" (page 74168068, revision 1351957562)
Date
Wikipedia article: the date in its opening sentence (the infobox gives none to the day)
Place and country
Wikipedia infobox: site
Map position
place the Wikipedia infobox site links (Wikidata 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 armed force or military unit in the infobox
Fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.
  • The Wikipedia infobox gives the ground fatalities as a range or estimate rather than a number, so the total is not stated here.