Turkish Heiress And 7 Friends Killed In Iran Plane Crash
A private jet carrying the daughter of a Turkish tycoon and seven of her friends crashed into an Iranian mountainside on Sunday, killing all 11 people on board.
The plane was returning to Turkey from Dubai, where the group of women had traveled to celebrate a bachelorette party for the bride-to-be, Mina Basaran, 28. She was the daughter of business mogul Huseyin Basaran, who heads the Turkish conglomerate Basaran Holding, and reportedly was slated to wed in April. Three crew members also were killed.
Iranian officials said the plane collided into the Zagros Mountains in the province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari. Photos of the crash site showed black smoke billowing from the mountainside.
UPDATE — Private plane that crashed in southwestern Iran was carrying Başaran Holding's heir and bride-to-be Mina Başaran and 7 of her friends flying to Istanbul from a bachelorette party in Dubai https://t.co/CRnBGW1xX7 pic.twitter.com/ZZ77eWhyxV
— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) March 11, 2018
The Bombardier CL604 jet belonged to Basaran Holding, a company involved in industries that include construction, finance and food, according to Reuters. The captain was Melike Kuvvet, who had been one of the first female pilots in the Turkish military before she joined the private sector, according to The New York Times.
Iranian authorities recovered the 11 bodies from the crash site on Monday, as well as the aircraft’s black box, reported Turkish news outlet Daily Sabah.
The cause wasn’t immediately determined. According to flight tracking data cited by The Associated Press, the plane “rapidly gained altitude and then dropped drastically within minutes” about 80 minutes after takeoff.
İran Kızılayından aldığımız son bilgiye göre;
Uçağın enkazına ve naaşlara ulaşıldı, sabah gün ağırdığında İran Kızılayının helikopteri ile naaşlar dağdan indirilecek.
Vefat eden vatandaşlarımızın yakınlarına başsağlığı diliyorum. pic.twitter.com/W9oFUIndt8— Dr Kerem Kınık (@drkerem) March 11, 2018
Heart-wrenching photos by @ilnanews show the crash site of the Turkish private jet that was carrying a group of young women, including #minabasaran from Dubai to Istanbul. The daughter of #Turkish businessman Huseyin Basaran was in line to run the company. https://t.co/706BEsdHdM pic.twitter.com/RgBcQhmbnX
— Hossein Aghaie (@Haghaie) March 12, 2018
Mina Basaran — a socialite and social media personality who appeared in Turkish fashion magazines like Vogue and Grazia — shared photographs on Instagram of her trip to Dubai in recent days.
The most recent image, which bore the hashtag #minasbachelorette, showed Basaran and her seven friends dressed in bathrobes at a Dubai hotel. Another picture showed Basaran holding a bouquet of flowers in front of an airplane.
Basaran was on the board of managers at Basaran Holding and was being groomed to run the business, AP reported.
Sunday’s crash comes just weeks after a passenger aircraft plunged into Iran’s Mount Dena, also part of the Zagros mountain range. All 66 people on board died in that disaster.
In loving memory of #minabasaran #TC_TRB #Dubai pic.twitter.com/piSXn0SqaT
— Adam Daryaei (@Adam_Daryaei) March 11, 2018
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
