ANKARA, Turkey — An airplane carrying Spanish peacekeepers crashed into a mountain in northeastern Turkey today while making its third attempt to land in thick fog. All 75 people aboard were killed, officials said.
The Spanish armed forces described the crash as Spain's worst military accident.
The Russian-made Yak-42D was flying from Kabul, Afghanistan, to Zaragoza, Spain, and was scheduled to make a refueling stop in the Black Sea port of Trabzon, the Spanish Defense Ministry said. Turkey's Transportation Ministry said the plane also made a stopover in Bishkek, Krygyzstan.
The plane hit a mountain slope near the town of Macka, 30 miles south of Trabzon, officials said.
Spain's Defense Ministry said Monday the "cause of the accident from our first impressions was the thick fog in the area. The plane was trying to land because of heavy turbulence caused by bad weather conditions."
Gov. Aslan Yildirim of Trabzon told the private CNN-Turk television station that the pilot reported not being able to see the runway during his first two landing attempts, and the plane disappeared from radar screens at 4:45 a.m.
The airplane, which belonged to Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines, carried 62 Spanish peacekeeping troops and 12 crew members, Turkish officials said, who said all were killed. The dead on the plane included 41 army soldiers and 21 air force personnel, the Spanish Defense Ministry said.
The plane, which apparently carried ammunition belonging to the Spanish soldiers, burst into flames and exploded upon impact. Turkish soldiers saw unexploded hand grenades among the wreckage and evacuated the site, fearing further explosions, CNN-Turk reported.
The Transportation Ministry said radio contact between the tower and the pilot cut off soon before news of the crash reached authorities.
Turkish soldiers retrieved more than 30 charred bodies from the wreckage, said Deputy Gov. Nihat Nalbant of Trabzon. Nalbant denied reports that the plane's black box flight recorder was found.
The flight recorder could indicate whether there were any failures in the aircraft's operations or its systems.
"It will be very difficult to identify them," the governor said. "Most bodies are in pieces or dismembered."
Television footage showed a huge pile of twisted and burned metal covering a wide area. Reporters at the scene said soldiers' diaries, family pictures, music CDs and a half-burned camera were scattered among the debris.
One witness, Sait Topcu, told CNN-Turk the plane was exploding in flames when he reached the site. "I had to wait 15-20 minutes for the explosions to end before I could get near to it," he said.
The army troops were from an engineering regiment and had just finished a four-month tour of duty, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported. Until now, there had been no deaths among Spanish troops in the 17 months they had been involved in the Afghan peacekeeping mission, the newspaper reported.
"Our thoughts are with our comrades who were traveling to Spain, and our hearts go out to their families and friends," acting peacekeeper commander Brig. Gen. Robert Bertholee said.
Aviation and medical experts from Spain's Defense Ministry were heading to Turkey to help in the investigation Federico Trillo, who was to coordinate the repatriation of the bodies. They were scheduled to arrive later Monday with Defense Minister Aneiros, spokesman Jose Antonio Aneiros said. said.
The engineers recently worked on a road to Kabul's airport that would give heavy fuel trucks easier access to the terminals, a spokesman for Spain's Defense Ministry said in Madrid. The Spanish air force also was working at Kabul's airport.
Spain's King Juan Carlos was being briefed on the accident by top military officials and sent telegrams of condolences to victims' relatives.
Pope John Paul II expressed his sorrow Monday for the crash victims, and said he was praying for the "spiritual serenity" of those who lost loved ones and offering his apostolic blessing.
U.S.-led coalition forces stormed into Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks, ousting Afghanistan's ruling Taliban military government and the terrorists it harbored from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
The United States remains the largest coalition force in Afghanistan, with about 8,500 soldiers stationed there hunting down Taliban and al-Qaida remnants.
Separately, about 5,000 peacekeepers have been in Kabul since December 2001 to help control the war-shattered capital. Germany and the Netherlands took command of the international contingent, called the International Security Assistance Force, from Turkey in February. Spain contributes 141 soldiers to the force. Most of them are engineers working in construction and explosive ordnance disposal.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry expressed its "deep sympathy" to the victims' families, saying, "The Afghan people and government appreciated their hard work and sacrifices, and the positive contributions made by their governments."