Tbilisi: All 20 Turkish military personnel on board a C-130 cargo aircraft have died after the plane crashed in Georgia near the border with Azerbaijan, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced Tuesday. Turkish and Georgian authorities launched coordinated search-and-rescue efforts immediately following the crash report, the defense ministry said.

According to Namibia Press Agency, the aircraft, en route from Azerbaijan to Trkiye, lost radar contact 27 minutes after entering Georgian airspace before crashing approximately 5 kilometers from the Azerbaijani border in Georgia’s Signagi region, according to Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. A large security perimeter was established around the crash site, with numerous ambulances and firefighting teams deployed to the scene, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

Video footage from Turkish news outlets showed the aircraft descending in a spiral while trailing a plume of white smoke. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze discussed ongoing search-and-rescue joint efforts in a phone call Tuesday evening, the Turkish presidency said.

The crashed aircraft was a C-130, a long-serving transport plane in the Turkish Air Force since 1964. To modernize its aging fleet, Trkiye recently announced a deal to procure 12 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the United Kingdom.