BFF-17 Seven Turkish security personnel killed in plane crash: state media

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Seven Turkish security personnel killed in plane crash: state media

ANKARA, July 16, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Seven Turkish security personnel have died in a plane crash in the east of the country, state media reported Thursday.

The “reconnaissance plane” went down in the province of Van, news agency Anadolu reported the interior minister as saying.

Provincial governor Mehmet Emin Bilmez paid tribute to the seven “heroes” on Twitter and sent condolences to their families.

A government investigation into the incident was underway, he added.

Two Turkish pilots died in 2018 when a military training plane crashed during an exercise in the western province of Izmir.

Remote and mountainous Van province on Turkey’s eastern border with Iran was struck by two avalanches in February that killed 41 people.

BSS/AFP/MMA/1044HRS