ANKARA, November 13. /TASS/. The C-130 military transport airplane that crashed in Georgia on Tuesday was carrying personnel and spare parts on a maintenance mission, the Ministry of Defense of Turkey said.

"Our aircraft was carrying personnel and maintenance equipment. There was no ammunition on board," a ministry spokesperson told reporters in Ankara. "On November 11, the C-130E transport aircraft with tail number 68-1609, belonging to the 12th main aviation transport base of the Air Force command, departed from Kayseri at 9:02 a.m. [6:02 a.m. GMT] carrying personnel and cargo to Ganja (Azerbaijan), where it landed safely at 11:06 a.m.," the ministry said.

"The aircraft departed again at 1:15 p.m. with twenty employees on board, heading towards the 5th main airbase of the command in the city of Merzifon, to collect ten technicians and various equipment to service our F-16 aircraft located in Azerbaijan as part of the Victory Day celebrations. The last radio communication with the Tbilisi air traffic control center was established after the takeoff at 1:50 p.m. After that, radio and radar communications with the aircraft were lost," the ministry informed.

"At 2:34 p.m., news came that the aircraft had crashed near the border of Azerbaijan and Georgia due to reasons that are as yet unknown," the ministry said. "After receiving information about the incident, search and rescue operations started immediately, conducted in coordination with the authorities of Azerbaijan and Georgia, and one of our drones was sent to the crash site at that time. Georgian search and rescue teams found aircraft fragments at 3:02 p.m. and the area was cordoned off at 5:00 p.m. so that the investigative unit could do its job," it added.