ANKARA, August 15. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday offered condolences over the crash of Russia’s fire-fighting plane Be-200 in the southeast of the country.

"A fire-fighting plane crashed yesterday while dealing with a fire in Kahramanmaras. As a result, a crew of Russian and Turkish citizens died. I offer my condolences," Erdogan said while speaking in Istanbul. The TRT television channel telecast Erdogan’s speech live.

An amphibious fire-fighting plane of Russia’s Naval Aviation crashed in the southeast of Turkey on August 14. There were five Russian military servicemen and three Turkish specialists on board. The Turkish personnel were directing the crew to wildfire locations. There were no survivors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday dispatched a message to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to offer deep condolences over the death of the Turkish citizens, who were on board. Putin instructed Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to nominate the plane’s crewmembers for government awards posthumously.

Turkey leased Russia’s Be-200 planes for dealing with large forest fires, which began simultaneously at several health resorts on July 29. The fires have claimed eight lives and 850 other people have been affected. A total of three Russian Be-200 planes were involved in the operation. Under the contract terms, Russian crews were commissioned to fly the planes. Turkey currently has no such aircraft. Its existing amphibious planes are inoperational due to technical condition and age.