In its history, Turkish Airlines has suffered a total of 19 incidents and accidents of which 15 were fatal. A total of 68 crew, 835 passengers and 35 people on the ground have been killed. • On 17 February 1959, a
Vickers Viscount Type 793, registration TC-SEV, operating a charter flight carrying
Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and a governmental delegation to
London for the signing of the
London-Zürich Agreements,
crashed in dense fog on approach to
London Gatwick Airport. Nine of the sixteen passengers and five of the eight crew lost their lives. Adnan Menderes, who was sitting in the back part of the aircraft, survived the accident. • On 23 September 1961,
Turkish Airlines Flight 835, a
Fokker F27-100 registered as TC-TAY, crashed at Karanlıktepe in
Ankara Province on approach to
Esenboğa Airport. All of the 4 crew and 24 of the 25 passengers on board were killed. • On 8 March 1962, a
Fairchild F-27, registration TC-KOP,
crashed into the
Taurus Mountains on approach to
Adana Şakirpaşa Airport. All three crew and all eight passengers on board died. • On 3 February 1964, a
Douglas C-47, registered as TC-ETI, on a domestic cargo flight, flew into terrain whilst on approach to
Esenboğa Airport, Ankara. All three crew members on board were killed. • On 2 February 1969, a
Vickers Viscount Type 794, registered as TC-SET, crashed on approach to
Esenboğa Airport. There were no casualties. • On 26 January 1974,
Turkish Airlines Flight 301, a
Fokker F28-1000 registered as TC-JAO crashed shortly after takeoff from
Izmir Cumaovası Airport due to
atmospheric icing on the wings. The aircraft disintegrated and caught fire, killing 4 of the 5 crew and 62 of the 68 passengers on board. • On 3 March 1974,
Turkish Airlines Flight 981, a
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 registered as TC-JAV, crashed into
Ermenonville Forest,
Fontaine-Chaalis,
Oise,
France, due to
explosive decompression, killing all 335 passengers and 11 crew on board. The main cause was a design fault on the cargo doors of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 which led to incomplete engagement of the door locking mechanism on the aircraft in question, and consequent opening of one door in flight. • On 30 January 1975,
Turkish Airlines Flight 345, a
Fokker F28-1000 registration TC-JAP, crashed into the
Sea of Marmara during final approach to
Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport. All 4 crew and all 38 passengers on board the aircraft were killed. • On 19 September 1976, a
Boeing 727-200 registered as TC-JBH operating
Turkish Airlines Flight 452 from
Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport to
Antalya Airport struck high ground in the Karatepe Mountains during an attempted landing in
Isparta instead of
Antalya by pilot error. All 8 crew and 146 people on board the aircraft perished in the accident. • On 23 December 1979, a
Fokker F28-1000, registration TC-JAT, on a flight from
Samsun-Çarşamba Airport to
Esenboğa Airport,
struck a hill in Kuyumcuköy village in
Çubuk,
Ankara, northeast of its destination airport in severe
turbulence. Three of the four crew and thirty-eight of the forty-one passengers on board were killed. • On 16 January 1983,
Turkish Airlines Flight 158, a
Boeing 727-200 registered as TC-JBR, landed about 50 m (160 ft) short of the runway at
Esenboğa Airport in driving snow, broke up and caught fire. All of the 7 crew survived; however, of the 60 passengers on board, 47 were killed. • On 29 December 1994,
Turkish Airlines Flight 278, a
Boeing 737-400 registration TC-JES, crashed during its final approach to
Van Ferit Melen Airport in driving snow. Five of the seven crew and fifty-two of the sixty-nine passengers died. • On 7 April 1999,
Turkish Airlines Flight 5904, a
Boeing 737-400 registered as TC-JEP on a repositioning flight, crashed near
Ceyhan,
Adana shortly after taking off from
Adana Şakirpaşa Airport. There were no passengers on board, but all six crew members perished in the accident. • On 8 January 2003,
Turkish Airlines Flight 634, an
Avro RJ-100 registration TC-THG, crashed on approach to
Diyarbakır Airport,
Turkey. Of the 80 people on board, all 5 crew and 70 passengers were killed. • On 3 October 2006,
Turkish Airlines Flight 1476 en route from
Tirana,
Albania to
Istanbul was hijacked by Turkish citizen Hakan Ekinci in Greek airspace. The hijacker surrendered after a forced landing in Brindisi, Italy. • On 25 February 2009,
Turkish Airlines Flight 1951, a
Boeing 737-800 registered as TC-JGE carrying 128 passengers and a crew of 7, crashed during final approach to
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol,
Netherlands. It was determined that a faulty
radar altimeter caused the aircraft to throttle the engines back to idle and that the crew subsequently failed to react properly which resulted in an unrecoverable stall and the subsequent crash. Of the 135 people on board, 9 people, including the 3 pilots, were killed. Eighty-six more people were transported to local hospitals. • On 3 March 2015, Turkish Airlines Flight 726 departed the runway on landing at
Tribhuvan International Airport,
Kathmandu, Nepal. The
Airbus A330-300 operating the flight, TC-JOC, was severely damaged when its nose gear collapsed, causing damage to the fuselage and both wings. All 227 passengers and 11 crew members on board escaped with 1 injury reported. The aircraft was scrapped afterwards. • On 25 April 2015, Turkish Airlines Flight 1878, an
Airbus A320-200 TC-JPE was severely damaged in a landing accident at
Istanbul Atatürk Airport. All on board were successfully evacuated without any injuries reported. • On 16 January 2017,
Turkish Airlines Flight 6491, a
Boeing 747-412F operated for Turkish Airlines under
wet lease from
ACT Airlines, crashed into a residential area upon attempting landing in
Manas International Airport in
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan, killing all four crew members and 35 people on the ground. In response, Turkish Airlines released a statement on
Twitter that neither plane nor crew were theirs, calling it an "ACT Airlines accident". However, the flight was still operated under a Turkish Airlines flight number, making it a Turkish Airlines flight under
IATA rules. • On 21 November 2019, Turkish Airlines Flight 467, a
Boeing 737-800, suffered a nose gear collapse while attempting to land in heavy crosswinds at
Odesa International Airport in
Ukraine. All passengers and crew were deplaned using emergency slides without injury. The aircraft, TC-JGZ, was declared a hull loss and scrapping was commenced in 2020. ==See also==