On 21 January 1972, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 registered as TC-JAC operated by Turkish Airlines crashed on approach while making an emergency landing at Adana Airport. The aircraft was en-route from Kandara Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to EsenboÃÂa Airport in Ankara, Turkey, with a stopover at Damascus Airport in Syria. There were only five crew members on board as the aircraft was being repositioned after carrying passengers to Hajj the day before.
After taking off from Damascus for the second leg of the flight, the plane had a cabin pressurization problem and attempted to divert to Adana. The aircraft had a go-around during its first landing attempt due to poor visibility. During the second attempt, the plane flew too low and crashed in a field away from the airport, and subsequently caught fire. One of the five crew members died in the flames, while three others were injured.
The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with serial number 47213/358, registered as TC-JAC, and named Marmara; it was manufactured in 1968. Two days prior to the accident, on 19 January, the plane carried the 13th Prime Minister of Turkey Nihat Erim and a delegation from Ankara to Paris, France, and was due to bring them back later on the accident day. Before the prime minister boarded the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, it underwent an "extensive technical control" and its interior was searched for explosives with detectors.
On board the flight deck were Captain Mahzar ðpek, aged 46, and First Officer Celâlettin Yeprem, aged 51. Both had been flying with the airline for 15 years, after leaving the Turkish Air Force in 1957. There were three cabin crew members: Nilgün Dener, Selva Aksöyek and Hülya Maviler. Maviler had also been a crew member on a Turkish Airlines flight that was hijacked to Sofia in September 1969.
The aircraft was returning back to Turkey without passengers from Jeddah after carrying pilgrims to Hajj the night before. During the second leg of the flight towards Ankara, the pilots reported to controllers that they were having problems with cabin pressurization and wanted to divert to Adana Airport for an emergency landing. It was snowing at the time of the accident, a condition which was rare for Adana. Due to the poor visibility, the pilots initiated a go-around after failing to see the runway. During the second approach, the aircraft was too low on altitude and struck the ground at 04:24 local time (02:24 GMT), away from the airport. The plane lost its landing gear and slid a short distance before catching fire.
The wreckage was located in a field near the SarñhuÃÂlar village close to the airport. Cabin crew member Hülya Maviler was killed in the fire that started after impact, while co-pilot Celâlettin Yeprem was taken out of the aircraft in a critical condition. Nilgün Dener, located at the rear of the aircraft, survived without any injuries and helped fellow crew members near the cockpit to evacuate. Maviler was seated at the center of the cabin and could not be reached by first responders. She was trying to escape to the rear of the aircraft but was surrounded by the smoke; her burnt body was removed from between seats. Her funeral was held in Istanbul the day after the crash. The crash is the sole fatal McDonnell Douglas DC-9 accident involving Turkish Airlines.
While being treated at the hospital in Adana, captain ðpek testified that they had lost communication with the airport shortly after declaring their emergency. After losing altitude due to the poor weather conditions and limited visibility in the night, they attempted to locate an area that seemed to be flat enough to perform an emergency landing.
In 1975, Gündüz Sevilgen, a member of the 15th Parliament of Turkey from the National Salvation Party, wrote several questions to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey related to Turkish Airlines, including the causes of accidents. He received a response from the Minister of Transport, Sabahattin ÃÂzbek, on 18 March. The response included a short list of causes of all Turkish Airlines crashes to date. The cause for the Adana crash in the response was:
According to a Hürriyet article from 1999, the pressurization failure was due to a malfunction in the electrical system of the aircraft. In 2020, Sözcü reported that they could not find any record of the pilots being prosecuted over the death of Hülya Maviler.