Was it a Mistake or an Accident? Who Shot Down the Turkish C-130 Transport Plane Over Georgia?
The site of the crash of the Turkish C-130 transport plane, emergency services are working (video screenshot)
According to a report by journalist Lyubov Stepanova from Pravda.Ru, Turkish experts do not rule out the possibility that the Azerbaijani air defense system (ПВО) was automatically triggered, and this could be the reason for the crash of the Turkish C-130 "Hercules" military transport plane over the border area of Georgia yesterday.
The transport plane was returning from Baku, carrying 20 military personnel (including special forces members and technicians), who had participated in the parade held in the capital of Azerbaijan on November 8. All the people on board, including the crew, were killed. It is reported that Georgia and Turkey are conducting a joint investigation. The last full technical maintenance of the transport plane was in 2020. As with similar accidents, the current investigation is focusing on three directions: technical failure, human factors, and external interference.
The published video of the crash shows that the transport plane broke into several pieces, with the front and rear parts missing. The magazine Haber pointed out two possible reasons: first, "the body of the transport plane may have holes due to corrosion, rust, or oxidation"; second, "the cargo was not properly secured, and during turbulence, it shifted, causing damage to the fuselage."
"The issue of aging structural materials cannot be ruled out," said former C-130 transport plane pilot Brent Borale when interviewed by A Haber television station.
He mentioned that the crashed transport plane was a model produced in the 1950s. Military expert Alexei Leont'ev pointed out that the disintegration of the transport plane in the air indicates insufficient structural strength, but he is skeptical about the "metal aging" theory — because the C-130 is not a supersonic aircraft and does not experience critical overload. Alexei Leont'ev stated that he has never seen a case of a C-130 transport plane breaking up in the air.
The expert said, "From the crash footage, there was no sign of fire at the time. However, a contrail appeared from the wing where four engines were installed. The most likely cause is the disintegration of the transport plane in the air due to a technical failure."
Turkish counter-terrorism and security expert Joshsun Basbug, when interviewed by Milliyet newspaper, considered the possibility of the technical failure theory to be low. He is convinced that the Turkish Air Force's technical personnel are "among the best in the world"; he also ruled out the possibility of pilot error, as the weather conditions were good at the time, but he did not exclude the possibility of "two planes colliding, human sabotage, or other forms of attack."
The report also mentioned that previously, it was rumored that the C-130 transport plane might have been hit by an "automatic air defense system," as the system failed to identify it as a "friendly target."
Counter-terrorism and security expert Ibrahim Kalesh said that according to the flight path, the transport plane did not fly over Armenian airspace, but directly entered Georgian airspace from Azerbaijani airspace. The border areas of Azerbaijan are equipped with automatic trigger air defense systems, which may have accidentally fired, becoming the cause of the "accidental firing."
It should be noted that Azerbaijan has not yet signed a peace agreement with Armenia.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7572013621606203930/
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