 TC-JBH, the aircraft involved in the accident, less than 11 months before the crash. | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 19 September 1976 |
| Summary | Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error |
| Site | Karatepe, Isparta, Turkey 37°43′50″N 30°33′16″E / 37.730666°N 30.554393°E |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 727-200 |
| Aircraft name | Antalya |
| Operator | Turkish Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | TK452 |
| ICAO flight No. | THY452 |
| Call sign | TURKISH 452 |
| Registration | TC-JBH |
| Flight origin | Atatürk Airport |
| Destination | Antalya Airport |
| Occupants | 154 |
| Passengers | 146 |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 154 |
| Survivors | 0 |
Turkish Airlines Flight 452 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight operated by a Boeing 727-2F2 of Turkish Airlines that crashed near Isparta on 19 September 1976 while en route from Istanbul Atatürk Airport (IST/LTBA) to Antalya Airport (AYT/LTAI), killing all 154 occupants on board. The crash is the deadliest aviation accident in Turkey's history.
The aircraft arrived in Istanbul from Italy and took off again at 22:45 local time. The pilots started descending towards Antalya at 23:11 with the captain in the passenger cabin. The plane crashed at around 23:20 into the Karatepe Hill near Isparta, about 100 kilometres (62 mi; 54 nmi) from the destination, after the first officer mistook the city lights of Isparta for the runway of Antalya Airport, despite warnings from the controller at Antalya.
Most passengers were heading to Antalya for vacation and were not Turkish. The bodies of 18 Italian victims were buried at a cemetery near Isparta instead of being sent to Italy. A member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey also died in the crash.