The low-level flight over Kayseri, a Turkish city of one million inhabitants in the Cappadocia region, was not planned and caused fear among many motorists.
Tuesday, January 23, a C-160 Transall military plane from the Turkish Air Force takes off from the 12th air transport base in this city in the center of the country, but the aircraft on exercise suffered a “
technical incident”
which requires him to fly at very low altitude in the city center, passing over buildings and busy roads.
Witnesses managed to film the scene.
The 30-ton, 40-metre-wings transport plane is then only a few meters from the cars which pile up as they see it arriving right in front of them.
“It was a scary moment, we are still in shock
,” says Muhammed Aytekin, quoted Thursday by the Anadolu news agency.
The aircraft passed so close to him that the trader could even smell the odor of kerosene.
“The plane passed over the lighting poles in the middle of the road
,” further specifies the witness who created this first video.
“Minor damage”
Finally, after an emergency landing, also filmed, the C-160 was able to land in a field off the runway, but fortunately quite far from inhabited areas.
“The plane suffered minor damage.
The health of our pilots and crew is stable
,” responded the Turkish Ministry of Defense in a press release.
The images reveal that the wings and fuselage of the aircraft were damaged due to the impact.
OSINT sources were able to identify the aircraft's serial number (69-036).
This is one of three Turkish Transall transport aircraft upgraded and transformed into a command and control aircraft (C-160T version).
The rest of the Turkish fleet of C-160s, an aircraft produced from 1963 to 1981 by a Franco-German consortium, was replaced by 10 Airbus A400M Atlas.
The last “Transall” of the French Air Force – an aircraft well known in France with 55 years of service – made its final flight in 2022 at the Évreux base, a year after that of the Bundeswehr.