Infant is among 57 fatalities in air crash

AN ATLASJET plane crashed on a rocky mountain shortly before it was due to land in southwest Turkey yesterday, killing all 57 people on board, including a six-week-old baby going to see her grandparents for the first time.

The MD-83, carrying 50 passengers and seven crew members, took off from Istanbul at about 1am for the one-hour flight to Isparta province, but it went off the radar just before landing at the airport.

A rescue helicopter reached the plane’s wreckage near the village of Yesilyurt at 7am and reported no survivors, said Tuncay Doganer, the airline’s chief executive.

The plane crashed on a mountain about 1,500m and rescuers initially had difficulty reaching the wreckage because of the rugged terrain, Atlasjet said. The crash site was 11km from the airport.

“The pilot saw the airport and informed the tower it was inbound. The plane then disappeared,” said Mr Doganer said. He said the cause of the crash was unknown, but ruled out technical failure and said the weather and visibility were good.

There were no indications that terrorism or sabotage was the cause, said Ali Ariduru, head of Turkey’s civil aviation authority. The area where the plane crashed is not a traditional stronghold of a Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy from Turkey.

Pieces of wreckage and personal belongings, including suitcases, clothing and magazines, were strewn across the hillside.

Investigators found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, the civil aviation authority said.

Weeping relatives approached the site, but were turned away by soldiers and other officials. Many bodies were not identifiable, said firefighter Osman Emir.

Ali Ceylan said he lost his six-week-old granddaughter, who was born in Istanbul and returning home to Isparta. His 22-year-old daughter-in-law and her mother also died. His son was in shock and being treated with tranquillisers

Isparta governor Semsettin Uzunnor said the crash site was not on the plane’s regular flight route. “It is impossible to understand how the plane” ended up there, said the governor, who viewed the scene from a helicopter.

Dogan news agency released a transcript of the conversation between the Atlasjet pilot and the Isparta control tower, but the exchange did not indicate any problem.

At 1.36am, the pilot was quoted as saying, “Isparta tower, we are inbound”.

The tower responded: “Understood, Atlasjet. Continue to approach.”

The civil aviation authority said communication with the plane was interrupted on its final approach to Suleyman Demirel airport in Isparta at 1.45am.

Atlasjet, a private airline established in 2001, operates regular flights inside Turkey and chartered flights to Europe and other foreign destinations. In 2005, one of its planes ran off the runway in winter conditions, but the company had not been involved in any fatal accidents. In August, one of its planes was hijacked by two men who held several passengers hostage for four hours before surrendering.