İZMIR — 1974 · Major Tragedy

Turkish Airlines Flight 301 Crash

ClosedSources: ALast updated: 14 October 2026

On the morning of 26 January 1974, a Turkish Airlines Fokker F28 registered TC-JAO crashed just after taking off from İzmir's Cumaovası Airport for Istanbul. After reaching a height of 8-10 metres, the aircraft suddenly yawed left and pitched nose-down, struck a drainage ditch, broke apart and caught fire. Of the 73 people on board, 66 died and seven survived. The accident report gave the probable cause as a stall resulting from frost accretion on the wings and over-rotation during takeoff. The crash became a reference case in international aviation records on the effect of icing on takeoff safety, and it remains one of the worst accidents in Turkish civil aviation history.

Date: 1974
Place: Gaziemir (Cumaovası Airport), İzmir
Category: Major Tragedy
Case Status: Closed
Coordinates: 38.2920, 27.1570 ↗

Timeline of Events

26 January 1974, morningFokker F28 TC-JAO took off from Cumaovası and crashed immediately.
26 January 197466 of the 73 people on board were reported dead.
1974-1975The investigation cited a stall caused by wing frost and over-rotation.

Sources

Wikipedia — Turkish Airlines Flight 301 en.wikipedia.org ↗
Aviation Safety Network (Web Arşivi) — Fokker F-28 TC-JAO, Izmir web.archive.org ↗
B3A (Web Arşivi) — Crash of a Fokker F28 Fellowship 1000 in Izmir: 66 killed web.archive.org ↗
Wikipedia
Aviation Safety Network
Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives

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