Damascus - Ankara

On January 20, 1972 at 12:00 AM, Damascus - Ankara experienced a crash involving Douglas DC-9, operated by Turkish Airlines - THY Türk Hava Yollari, with the event recorded near Adana-Sakirpasa Mediterranean Region (Akdeniz Bölgesi).

The flight was categorized as ferry and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a airport (less than 10 km from airport) crash site.

5 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 4 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 20.0%.

Crew on board: 5, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. En route from Damascus to Ankara, the crew informed ATC about cabin pressurization problems and was cleared to divert to Adana-Sakirpasa Airport for an emergency landing. On approach, the pilot encountered poor visibility due to snow falls and as he was unable to locate the runway, he decided to make a go-around. Few minutes later, while in a second attempt to land, the crew failed to realize his altitude was too low when the airplane struck the ground. Upon impact, the airplane lost its undercarriage and slid for dozen yards before coming to rest in flames 2 km short of runway 05 threshold. Four crew members were injured while one of the pilot was killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration TC-JAC, MSN 47213/358, year of manufacture 1968.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 36.9952°, 35.2741°.