Turkish S-70 Military Helicopter Crashes in Malatya: Four Service Members Killed, Prosecutors Open Investigation
Türkiye's Ministry of National Defence said an S-70 military helicopter of the Turkish Armed Forces crashed in the eastern province of Malatya on the evening of November 12, killing all four service members on board. The cause has not yet been determined, and prosecutors have opened an investigation.
The ministry said the helicopter came down at about 6:45 p.m. local time in the Samanköy area of Yeşilyurt district in Malatya, that the wreckage had been located and that search-and-rescue operations began immediately. The dead were army pilot Major Erdem Çimen, 41, army pilot Major Orhun Pınar, 37, Senior Chief Warrant Officer Hüseyin Zehir, 34, and Senior Sergeant Serkan Önder, 28, the latter two serving as aircraft and helicopter technicians.
The Malatya chief public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation, assigning a deputy chief prosecutor and two prosecutors to the case. A member of parliament, speaking on television, cited information from the area suggesting the pilots had tried to steer the helicopter away from houses after noticing danger; that account has not been confirmed, and neither prosecutors nor the military have released any preliminary finding on the cause.
The S-70 is the military designation of Sikorsky's Black Hawk family, long a primary utility helicopter of the Turkish Armed Forces. The defence ministry paid tribute to the four men as heroic comrades-in-arms.
(Source: Ministry of National Defence of Türkiye)
Source: Ministry of National Defence of Türkiye
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：土耳其东部马拉蒂亚省省会马拉蒂亚市全景（资料图）。CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Panorama of Malatya, the provincial capital in eastern Türkiye (file photo). CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
