The analysis of the black box of the cargo plane that crashed in Georgia last week may take at least two months, Türkiye's Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said Monday.
The C-130 cargo aircraft had left Azerbaijan for Türkiye and crashed in Georgia, killing 20 soldiers, marking the NATO member's highest military death toll since 2020. Ankara has said it was investigating the cause of the crash.
"The process of decoding the black boxes and reaching initial findings will take at least two months," Güler told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Ankara.
Güler said preliminary information suggests the aircraft’s tail may have detached first, after which the plane broke into three pieces, stressing that definitive conclusions will come from the flight recorders, which are currently being examined by TUSAŞ. He noted that Türkiye has operated C-130s since 1957 and experienced only one engine fire in 1999, when the aircraft landed safely, adding that the model is generally regarded as reliable.
