Watch A Turkish Air Force C-160D Fly Extremely Low Over City Before Emergency Landing

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11 months ago

The C-160D during its approach to Kayseri.

The C-160D involved in the incident is one of two special mission aircraft equipped with jamming systems for Electronic Warfare.

On Jan. 25, 2024, a Turkish Air Force C-160D Transall aircraft experienced unknown technical issues shortly after take off from Kayseri Erkile airport, near the city of Kayseri, in the central region of Cappadocia, that forced the crew to return to the airfield and carry out an emergency landing.

During its approach, the aircraft flew very low over the city of Kayseri (it looks like the aircrew was somehow fighting to keep it airborne), where it was filmed from the ground by several people. The clips have immediately gone viral on social media.

Turkish Air Force Transall C-160 military transport aircraft, which took off for training in Kayseri, had to make an emergency landing due to a technical malfunction.

While the aircraft sustained minor damage, the pilot and crew are in good health. pic.twitter.com/YZn6PI12dZ

— Clash Report (@clashreport) January 25, 2024

Ekibin eline sağlık, şehir içerisinde bir kazaya sebebiyet vermemişler. pic.twitter.com/JfOvk5HbsF

— TangoTangoLima (@Ttltlg) January 25, 2024

The aircraft involved in the mishap, serial 69-036, is a pretty interesting C-160D, one of two special mission aircraft, in the so-called MilKar-2U configuration for EW (Electronic Warfare) radio-frequency jamming systems. While rarely seen abroad, the aircraft, belonging to the 221 Filo (Squadron), caught a lot of attention from aviation spotters and was one of the highlights of Anatolian Eagle exercise in 2019.

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A very rarely seen ELINT/SIGINT C-160D of 221 Filo. (Image credit: Stephan de Bruijn)

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The C-160D of 221 Filo during AE 2019. (Image credit: Stephan de Bruijn)

A statement released by the Turkish Air Force says that the aircrew safely escaped the aircraft that veered off the runway after the emergency landing and that the C-160 was only slightly damaged. However, images circulated online, seem to show significant damage to the airframe.

Being used as an ELINT/SIGINT platform, world’s last airworthy C-160D Transall transport aircraft (69-036) of 12th Air Transport Base Command of Turkish Air Force will not fly again.

Aircraft has received severe damages after the crash landing in Kayseri.#aircraft https://t.co/3NlKNSYuhU pic.twitter.com/wF3TY8gmUN

— FL360aero (@fl360aero) January 25, 2024

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.