Nato military aircraft crashes 100 miles from Russian border

Alleged videos of the incident have been circulating online

The Lockheed C-130E Hercules crashed near the Georgia-Azerbaijan border with a video doing the rounds on X alleging to show the aircraft's final moments.

The Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Defence wrote on X: "One of our C130 military cargo aircraft, which was taking off from Azerbaijan to come to our country, has crashed at the Georgia-Azerbaijan border.

"Search and rescue operations have begun in coordination with the authorities of Azerbaijan and Georgia. It is respectfully announced to the public." It is currently not clear how many crew were on board the aircraft at the time.

The incident was also identified by FlightRadar24 who put out a post on X which read: "We’re following reports of a Lockheed C-130E Hercules, belonging to the Turkish Air Force, that is suspected to have crashed in Georgia, close to the border of Azerbaijan.

"Evidence points to the aircraft being TUAF543, which departed Ganja Airport in Azerbaijan at 10:19 UTC. This is unconfirmed data."

According to playback footage on FlightRadar24 of the aircraft, the plane crashed around 30 minutes into its flight, after departing Ganja Airport at 14:19 local time.

It appears to have crashed at 14:49 (GMT+4).

The Turkish Defence Ministry has since reported that the plane was carrying 20 personnel including flight crew, as per local outlets.

Updates to follow.