Two Turkish air force jets crash killing four

Two Turkish Air Force jets have crashed in the Eastern Anatolia region due to unknown reasons, killing four people, the Interior Ministry says.

“Unfortunately, four were martyred. We have reached the wreckage of the two planes,” AFP quoted Interior Minister Efkan Ala as saying on Tuesday.

Each of the RF-4E jets was carrying a pilot and a co-pilot as they crashed late Tuesday evening near the city of Malatya, in the province of the same name.

According to a statement released by Turkey’s Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel, both jets took off from Malatya Erhaç 7th Air Base at 6:07 p.m. local time (1607 GMT) and disappeared from radar screens on 7:05 p.m. (1705 GMT).

“The debris of our two planes was found at 8:45 p.m. (1845 GMT) and our four hero pilots were martyred,” the statement said.

The Turkish army said the planes crashed due to an accident but refrained from giving further information over the cause of the incident or how the two jets apparently crashed simultaneously.