KONYA - Air Forces Command Evaluation, Control Department teams continue their investigation into crash of two F-4 military planes last night and clear information on what caused the collision during training over central province of Konya will be gathered from the position of the wreckage, sources said on Wednesday.
The Gendarmerie teams took action after villagers telephoned them last night and said they had seen two planes collided in mid-air and crashed into a mountainside, describing a loud explosion that sparked fire in a wooded area.
Villagers who joined the search-and-rescue efforts firstly found trainee Pilot Officer Onur Uyanik alive. Uyanik who safely ejected before the collision was brought to Konya with helicopter after he gave information to officials.
Villagers were later taken out of the area by the Gendarmerie teams.
Later, Forestry Department personnel located a pilot in his seat near a wreckage, but when they reached the area they saw that trainer Flight Lieutenant Omer Gunana was already dead.
Officials said wreckage of the planes spread to three different areas and they started search-and-rescue efforts in Bagcilar region in Taskent town of Konya to find the missing trainer Flight Lieutenant Savas Acarca and trainee Pilot Officer Bahadir Tayfur. However, they could not find anything in that area.
A helicopter and a plane backed the search-and-rescue efforts whole night. In the end, officials found the wreckage of the other plane nearly 500 meter from the wreckage of the plane they earlier found and they recovered bodies of Acarca and Tayfur.
Meanwhile, the General Staff announced that two F-4E planes had collided in mid-air during training last night over central province of Konya and crashed into a mountainside near Hadim town of Konya.
Issuing a statement, it said that it was still not clear what caused the collision of two F-4E planes.
It said that Pilot Officer M. Onur Uyanik survived as he safely ejected while other pilots Flight Lieutenant Omer Gunana, Flight Lieutenant A. Savas Acarca and Pilot Officer Bahadir Tayfur died.
It added that investigation into collision was under way.
(MS-AÖ) 03.03.2004