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1985 Balıkesir plane crash

4 Apr 1985 · Balıkesir, Turkey

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

From 9th Main Jet Base, Balıkesir, Turkey 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
20 · all aircraft and ground
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

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter

Aircraft type
Lockheed F-104
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
63-5710
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
20
Route
From 9th Main Jet Base, Balıkesir, TurkeyTo not recorded

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

From the Wikipedia article

The 1985 Balıkesir plane crash was the accident that occurred on 4 April 1985 when a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter fighter aircraft with tail number 63-5710, belonging to the Turkish Air Force, which had taken off from the 9th Main Jet Base in Balıkesir for a training flight, crashed into the city of Balıkesir.

Crash

The fighter aircraft, which had taken off from the 9th Main Jet Base in Balıkesir for a training flight with pilots Major Oğuz Sever and Captain Ahmet Özcan on board, crashed due to an unknown failure onto the Carpenters' Estate (Marangozlar Sitesi) on the Old Kepsut Road (the Old Heavy Industry Zone road). The pilots, Major Oğuz Sever and Captain Ahmet Özcan, bailed out of the aircraft by means of their ejection seats. While Sever survived, Özcan got caught on a high-voltage line and lost his life. Because of the crash, thinner drums in the workplaces at the Carpenters' Estate caught fire, causing a large blaze. One of the aircraft's 2 pilots and 13 tradesmen died at the scene, and 21 people were injured. 6 of those injured in the incident died in the following days.

Translated into English with AI assistance from the Turkish Wikipedia article “1985 Balıkesir uçak kazası” (revision 36481441, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article

Sources

Turkish Wikipedia article: 1985 Balıkesir uçak kazası
Article
1985 Balıkesir uçak kazası
Translation
Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
Revision
36481441 · 2025-12-05 · retrieved 2026-09-19
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
tr Wikipedia article "1985 Balıkesir uçak kazası" (page 4574473, revision 36481441), translated into English with AI assistance
Date
Wikipedia infobox: date
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
Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A Turkish Air Force fighter on a training flight from a military jet base: a military flight. The article: "a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter fighter aircraft with tail number 63-5710, belonging to the Turkish Air Force, which had taken off from the 9th Main Jet Base in Balıkesir for a training flight"
Fatalities
Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
Ground fatalities
not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
Summary
Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (1)
  • Wikipedia · Facts from the Turkish Wikipedia article's infobox, translated into English with AI assistance, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.