Turkish Airlines Flight 301

The aircraft was a Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship registered as TC-JAO with serial number 11057.[1] It made its first flight on 5 September 1972, joined Turkish Airlines on 9 January 1973, and had flown for 2,269 hours over 3,133 flights prior to the accident.[2] The Fokker F28 was named Van for the city Van;[3] its airworthiness certificate was valid until 13 December 1974.[4]

The captain and pilot in command of the flight was İlhan Günaydın (37). He was a former Turkish Air Force pilot who graduated from the air force academy in 1958. He flew 2,600 hours in military aircraft until he resigned and joined Turkish Airlines in 1970. He became a Fokker F28 captain in 1972 and had accumulated 577 flight hours on the type. The co-pilot was Kaya Künelgin (36). Künelgin was also a former air force pilot with 2,794 hours in military aircraft. He resigned from the air force in 1973 and joined Turkish Airlines. He had 395 flight hours with the Fokker F28.[4] Flight engineer Erdal Parlakbilek was also present in the cockpit. There were two cabin crew members: Aynur Sürücü and Serap Özgenç.[5]

A day before the accident, the same crew and aircraft had made the Izmir–Athens–Izmir flight without reporting any issues, and stayed at Izmir for the night.[6] The captain's wife however, claimed that he had called her the night before and said: "the plane is defective, let's see what we will do."[7] According to an unnamed Turkish Airlines official, a group of Dutch technicians came to Istanbul and performed maintenance on the aircraft to fix its issues "some time ago".[8]

The broken tail of the aircraft after the accident

The pilot in command, İlhan Günaydın, completed the pre-flight walk-around and the plane was ready for departure at 07:07 local time (05:07 GMT) to fly to Istanbul. The aircraft taxied to runway 35 and started its roll after receiving clearance from the tower to do so.[6] The aircraft started lifting off after using 3,200 feet (980 m) of the runway and climbed to a maximum altitude of 8–10 metres (26–33 ft), after which it started banking to the left and pitching down. The left wing made contact with the ground first, followed by the left fuselage belly which struck the 50-centimetre (20 in) bank of a drainage ditch located 28 metres (92 ft) left of the runway. The impact ruptured the fuel tank located inside the left wing, causing the plane to catch fire.[6][9] The plane started to break up as the tail section was separated first. The tail section overtook the fuselage and impacted it between the cockpit and the passenger cabin, causing them to disintegrate as well and turning the latter upside down. The nose section travelled further until it hit a stack of empty drums 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) tall[10] and 150 metres (490 ft) away from the runway.[11]

External video
Wreckage and Bodies in Turkish Plane Crash The scene of the accident two days after the crash

Witnesses of the crash ran to the accident site to assist with the evacuation.[6] The emergency services at the airport were already on stand-by when the aircraft started its engines and were quickly at the accident scene. Ten minutes later, a team of firefighters from Gaziemir Air Base and the city itself arrived to assist with the flames. The fire was extinguished within 30 minutes. The flight recorder was found in good condition.[9]

The whole aircraft apart from the cockpit and tail sections was destroyed by the fire, which made it impossible to save all the occupants with facilities available at the airport.[11] Minister of Transport Ferda Güley, who started his duty only a day prior to the accident, requested a brain surgeon for a critically injured crew member.[5]

Most passengers on board the flight were Turkish immigrants living in Germany, who had been on leave from their work. Initial reports mentioned that 62 people perished; 51 died on-site, while 11 others, including all three pilots, died in hospital after being taken out of the wreckage in a critical condition.[5] An additional passenger was reported dead on 1 February.[12]

According to the final report, of the 68 passengers, 62 died; while six, including an infant, survived. Only one of the five crew members, Aynur Sürücü, survived the initial crash,[6] but died later on 12 December 1975 due to her injuries.[lower-alpha 1] Her family blamed the airline for "not caring for her".[13]

Families of the victims received 50,000 Turkish liras as compensation from an insurance company.[14] It was the worst accident involving a Fokker F28 and second-deadliest aviation accident in Turkey at that time. As of October 2023, it is the second-deadliest crash involving the type and the fifth-deadliest in the nation.[2]

Newly elected Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit's first order in office was for the Minister of Transport to visit the accident scene and start an investigation to determine the cause.[3] The day after the crash, a flight instructor on board as a passenger claimed that the plane rotated too early and stalled as a result.[5] Five different commissions met with Güley on 27 January at Izmir. Güley announced after the meeting that both flight recorders were recovered and sent to Istanbul.[15] The cockpit voice recorder in the aircraft was found to be defective—investigators were unable to listen to the tape.[8]

On 12 March 1975, Gündüz Sevilgen, a member of the 15th Parliament of Turkey from the National Salvation Party, wrote several questions to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey related to Turkish Airlines, including the causes of accidents.[16] He received a response from the Minister of Transport, Sabahattin Özbek, on 18 March. The response included a short list of causes of all Turkish Airlines crashes to date.[17] The cause for Flight 301 was: "[t]ake off made with an out-of-limit take off angle and icing on the wing causing the plane to crash with a lack of speed."[17]

• Turkish Airlines Flight 981 - much deadlier crash of a Turkish Airlines aircraft that occurred two months after the crash of Flight 301

• Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network