Free Republic

ISTANBUL, Nov. 30 — A Turkish passenger jet crashed in the mountains of western Turkey early Friday, killing all 57 people on board, including several prominent nuclear physicists on their way to a conference, Turkish authorities said. The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by Atlasjet, an airline based in Istanbul, took off from Istanbul and disappeared from radar shortly before it was due to land at the airport in Isparta. It crashed about seven miles from the airport, near the town of Keciborlu, the authorities said. The cause of the crash was unclear. The weather was good, airline officials...

Plane With 56 Crashes in Turkey 18 minutes ago ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — An Atlasjet plane crashed shortly before it was to land in central Turkey early Friday, killing all 56 people on board, the airline's chief executive said. A rescue helicopter had reached the wreckage of the plane on a mountainous region near the town of Keciborlu in Isparta province and reported back that no one had survived the crash, airline CEO Tuncay Doganer said.

CNN) -- A Turkish jetliner with 56 people onboard went missing over southern Turkey early Friday as the pilot was preparing to land in Isparta, an Atlasjet spokesman said. The plane crashed near the village of Keciborlu, Turkish media reported, but officials at Atlasjet were not able to verify the information. -snip-

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Self-proclaimed al-Qaida members hijacked a Turkish airliner on its way from Northern Cyprus to Istanbul on Saturday, the private television station NTV reported. The hijackers demanded that the airplane be flown to Tehran, Iran, said Tuncay Doganer, CEO of the private Atlasjet airline company. But the plane landed at an airport in Antalya, a Turkish province on the Mediterranean coast, after pilots said there was not enough fuel to fly to Iran, Doganer said. There were 136 passengers and six crew on board the plane, Doganer said. He said some of the passengers had been released....