Three days after their deaths in a plane crash in Iran, bodies of 10 victims out of 11 were brought back to their native Turkey yesterday.
The eight passengers, all women, were returning from a bachelorette party in Dubai aboard a private jet with an all-women crew when it crashed in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran Sunday.
A Turkish military plane brought the bodies to Istanbul's Atatürk airport while Vasıf Gebeş, father of plane's pilot Beril Gebeş, futilely asked whether his daughter's body was aboard too. Iranian media reported that authorities were still looking for Gebeş's body while Turkish media outlets said that a DNA analysis was underway to find the remains of the pilot among the wreckage. Iranian Legal Medicine Organization confirmed, "one body" was still missing.
Murat Gezer, who would marry Mina Başaran, host of the bachelorette party, next month, was among those who arrived at the airport. The bodies were later transferred to the coroner's office for an autopsy.
The private jet, a Bombardier CL604, suddenly lost altitude after rapidly gaining altitude. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of the crash while black boxes were recovered from the crash site.
The plane was owned by Başaran Investment Holding, which is run by Hüseyin Başaran, father of Mina Başaran. The young woman was the only heir to her father's business empire that operates in sectors ranging from food to hotels and construction. Other victims include an architect, jewelry designers, a psychologist and two businesswomen. All were in their late twenties and some were married while one was planning to marry in May.
