Ankara, 28 December 2010 17:32
CHARTER HELICOPTER MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE HAD TRACKING DEVICE FITTED
A government report released today has determined that the Bell 206L LongRanger 4 helicopter in which the leader of Turkey's Great Union Party died on 25th March 2009 may have had a problem being located due to accident-indiced damage or missing equipment.
The Turkish LongRanger-4 TC-HEK which crashed on March 25th 2009 killing 5 people
Yazıcıoğlu, BBP Sivas Provincial Chairman Erhan Üstündağ, Deputy Provincial Chairman Yüksel Yağcı, Sivas city council candidate Murat Çetinkaya and İhlas News Agency (İHA) reporter İsmail Güneş, along with the pilot, Kaya İstektepe, were all perished while traveling from Kahramanmaraş to Yozgat for an election rally when their helicopter crashed in March 2009.
A team of three experts that were assigned to investigate the tragic helicopter accident in Kahramanmaraş by the Transportation Ministry's Civil Aviation General Directorate (SHGM) had reported that the helicopter did have the ELT device, but it had not send strong signals because its antenna was broken when the helicopter crashed.
However, a report accessed by the Toplumsal Hafıza, a news website, has revealed that the helicopter did not have the device at the time of the accident.
Referring to statements from pilot Ali İbanoğlu, from the Med-Air helicopter company, who used the helicopter carrying Yazıcıoğlu most frequently before the accident, the report said the helicopter did not actually have the ELT device.
Only one passenger survived the crash with injuries and made an emergency call. Due to harsh weather conditions at the crash site, the victims and the wreckage could be recovered only after two days, and the injured passenger was found dead five days later under snow.
TC-HEK was chartered by the local leaders of a minor political party, the Great Union Party to enable their leader Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu to join political rallies held the same day in neighboring provinces within the campaign for the 2009 local elections in Turkey.
Turkish party leader's helicopter lacked ELT device in crash: report [ WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY NEWS, WORLD NEWS ]