ANKARA, Nov 14 (NNN-TRT) – A Turkish firefighting aircraft crashed in Croatia, yesterday, leaving its pilot dead, Türkiye’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Ibrahim Yumakli, said.
“The wreckage of our firefighting aircraft, belonging to the General Directorate of Forestry, which lost radio contact in Croatia, has been located near the town of Senj in Croatia,” Yumakli said, on social media platform X.
In an earlier statement, the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry said, two AT-802 planes, operated by the General Directorate of Forestry, a public institution affiliated with the ministry, had departed from the north-western province of Canakkale on Wednesday morning, to undergo scheduled maintenance in Zagreb, capital of Croatia.
Due to poor weather, both aircraft were forced to remain overnight on Wednesday at Rijeka Airport, in western Croatia’s city of Rijeka, said the statement.
They then took off yesterday afternoon, but were forced to head back to the airport amid worsening weather, with one of them landing successfully, while the other’s radio contact was lost at 6:25 p.m. local time (1525 GMT), it added.– NNN-TRT
