2nd LD-Writethru: 3 soldiers killed in Turkish military training plane crash

ANKARA, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Turkish military CASA-type cargo plane on Wednesday afternoon crashed in the southern Anatolian province of Isparta during training exercises, killing three Turkish crew members.

Turkish Armed Forces confirmed in a statement that two pilots and one technician were on the aircraft and all three were killed in the crash near Egirdir Lake.

Radar connection was lost with the plane at around 12:50 local time (0950 GMT), and rescue teams reached the plane's wreck afterwards, the statement said.

Isparta Governer Sehmus Gunaydin said the cause of the crash is still unknown but noted that weather conditions were foggy during the flight.

The CASA CN-235 is a medium-range twin-engined transport plane jointly developed by Spain's Construcciones Aeronauticas SA and Indonesian Aerospace.

According to Turkey's media, this plane type currently serves for Turkish air force in large scale but has crashed three times before.

Another deadliest accident took place on May 16, 2001, when a CN-235 transport plane carrying 34 soldiers, crew members and army commandos crashed in eastern Turkey with no survivors. Enditem