Turkish Airlines Flight 278, operated by a Boeing 737-4Y0 registered TC-JES and named Mersin, was a domestic scheduled flight from Ankara Esenboğa Airport (IATA: ESB, ICAO: LTAC) to Van Ferit Melen Airport (IATA: VAN, ICAO: LTCI) in eastern Turkey that crashed on 29 December 1994 during its final approach to land in driving snow. Five of the seven crew and 52 of the 69 passengers lost their lives, two crew members and 17 passengers survived with ...
more
Turkish Airlines Flight 278, operated by a Boeing 737-4Y0 registered TC-JES and named Mersin, was a domestic scheduled flight from Ankara Esenboğa Airport (IATA: ESB, ICAO: LTAC) to Van Ferit Melen Airport (IATA: VAN, ICAO: LTCI) in eastern Turkey that crashed on 29 December 1994 during its final approach to land in driving snow. Five of the seven crew and 52 of the 69 passengers lost their lives, two crew members and 17 passengers survived with heavy injuries.
At 15:30 EET (13:30 UTC), TK278 struck a hill near Edremit district of Van Province at 5,700 ft (1,700 m) AMSL around 4 km (2.2 nmi) from Van Airport while on a third VOR-DME approach to the Runway 03 in bad weather despite a warning from air traffic control not to attempt any more approach in a snowstorm. The visibility was 900 m (3,000 ft) reducing to 300 m (980 ft) in heavy driving snow.
It was the worst aviation accident involving a Boeing 737-400 at that time. It was subsequently surpassed by Adam Air Flight 574 which...
less
