2007 AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crash
Antonov An-26 · Controlled flight into terrain in low visibility due to fog
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
- 34 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 35
- Survivors
- 1
- 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
- 1
- 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
Antonov An-26
- Aircraft type
- Antonov AN-26
- 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
- ER-26068
- Operator
- AerianTur-M
- Onboard fatalities
- 34
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
The 2007 AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crash was an aviation accident involving an Antonov An-26 airliner, which crashed on 9 January 2007 while attempting to land at the Joint Base Balad in Balad, Iraq, which was at that time operated by the United States Air Force. The crash killed 34 people aboard and left one passenger critically injured. Officials claim the crash was caused by poor weather conditions, but other sources claim that this is a cover-up and the plane was actually shot down by a missile.
Background
The aircraft, which took off from Adana, Turkey,
was owned by the Moldovan company AerianTur-M, and on the day of the accident had been chartered to a Turkish construction company, Kulak, who had been contracted to build a new hangar at the air base. The aircraft hired by BSA Aviation Ltd (charterer) was carrying both cargo and passengers; a total of 1,289 kg of cargo was on board, compared with the 5,000 kg capacity. Turkish authorities told CNN Türk television that of the passengers, there were 29 Turkish workers, three Moldovans, a Russian, a Ukrainian, and an American on board, even though this totals one more than the number of people known to be on board. Later, the Russian consul general in Antalya said the Russian and the Ukrainian also had Moldovan citizenship.
Crash
The plane crashed at 0700 UTC, about 2.5 km away from Balad Air Base, the main hub of US military logistics in Iraq, while attempting to land. An anonymous ministry official told the Associated Press that the pilot had already aborted one landing attempt due to poor weather conditions. Although the aircraft was said to have crashed due to fog, one eyewitness, a relative of one of the deceased, said that he watched a missile strike the right hand side of the fuselage while standing just 300 – 400 m from where the aircraft went down. The man also said that multiple other eyewitnesses also saw the aircraft get shot down. İsmail Kulak, a partner in the ownership of the Kulak Construction Company, was among the dead.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
After the wreckage was photographed in situ, the army hauled it away on flatbed trucks to the base, where it is presently secured. As well as the ongoing question of fog, Ahmed al-Mussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi transport ministry, said one day after the crash that "It must have been technical failure or a lack of aviation experience (on the part of the crew),". The crash is under investigation by the Iraqi government, American government and Moldovan government, but the Turkish government has been denied permission to join the investigative team. The Air Force and the Army say they are willing to help with the investigation. Ali Ariduru, deputy head of the Turkish aviation authority, said initial information indicated there was no technical malfunction on the plane. Eyewitness from the shift in one of the base towers did not see or hear missile or gunfire.
There is confusion as to the whereabouts of the aircraft's Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder (FDR and CVR, commonly referred to as "black boxes"). The Turkish Foreign Ministry stated they have been shipped to Antonov's Kyiv headquarters, but Turkish Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım claims they are still in Iraq, with the rest of the debris. All that is confirmed is that they have been recovered, which occurred on 30 January.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2007 AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crash” (revision 1368755774, 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: 2007 AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crash
- Revision
- 1368755774 · 2026-08-10 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4608028
- 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 "2007 AerianTur-M Antonov An-26 crash" (page 9059598, revision 1368755774)
- 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 is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.