Black box found, second air crash in 24 hours

PM Abdullah Gul ruled out a ‘‘terrorist’’ attack, saying the cause of Wednesday’s crash appeared to be the heavy fog that had enshrouded the city of Diyarbakir for several days.

The aircraft, an RJ100, which had been flying from Istanbul to Diyarbakir, the capital of the mainly Kurdish southeast, crashed into a field as it made its landing approach. Fierce fire hampered rescue attempts. ‘‘They died burning’’, the Hurriyet daily said. Rescue workers had recovered the plane’s black box from the wreckage. Authorities have promised a full investigation.

Meanwhile, two Turkish military planes crashed today during a training mission in the south-eastern province of Malatya, the second in 24 hours killing the four airmen aboard. Officials said the two RF-4 reconnaissance planes crashed after colliding in mid-air. The crash occurred in the mountainous Akcadag area where visibility has gone down to just 10 metres.