Turkish Airlines safety record
No one has died in an accident on a Turkish Airlines aircraft since 2009. The 2017 cargo crash in Kyrgyzstan under its flight number was flown by another company. On airlines like Turkish Airlines, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight.
For airlines based in Türkiye and the other countries in the same safety group, 2018–2022 (MIT study).
Put another way: if you took a flight every single day, you would, on average, fly for about 219,000 years before a fatal accident happened to you.
No fatal accident on its own aircraft since 2009
The last fatal accident on a Turkish Airlines aircraft was on 25 February 2009, when flight 1951 crashed short of the runway at Amsterdam Schiphol and nine people died. Investigators found a faulty radio altimeter had sent the engines to idle on an approach that was not stabilised, and the crew noticed the loss of speed too late.
On 16 January 2017, a Boeing 747 freighter flying under a Turkish Airlines flight number but operated by ACT Airlines under a wet lease, with its own crew, crashed into a village near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; the 4 crew and 35 people on the ground died.
Turkish Airlines' earlier record includes a series of fatal accidents between the 1970s and 2003, among them flight 981 near Paris in 1974, caused by a cargo door design fault. It is registered with IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA).
Every fatal accident, on one line
Solid dots are its own flights; hollow ones were flown by a partner or subsidiary under its name; grey rings are hijackings and attacks. Deaths that investigators don't class as accidents (such as trespassers) aren't shown.
- Jan 2017 TK6491 (ACT Airlines) · Boeing 747 freighter · near Bishkek, KyrgyzstanA wet-leased ACT Airlines cargo flight under a Turkish Airlines flight number crashed into a village beyond the runway; investigators found the crew lost track of its position on a night approach.
- Feb 2009 TK1951 · Boeing 737-800 · Amsterdam SchipholA faulty radio altimeter sent the engines to idle on an approach that was not stabilised, and the crew noticed the loss of speed too late.
- Jan 2003 TK634 · Avro RJ100 · DiyarbakırThe crew kept descending on a non-precision approach in fog without seeing the runway.
- Apr 1999 TK5904 · Boeing 737-400 · near CeyhanA positioning flight with only crew on board: the airspeed sensors' heating was probably not switched on, and the crew did not recover from the erratic readings.
- Oct 1998 TK487 · Boeing 737-400 · AnkaraHijacked; police stormed the aircraft and the hijacker was killed. No one else was hurt.
- Dec 1994 TK278 · Boeing 737-400 · near VanHit a hill on a second approach in heavy snow.
- Jan 1983 TK158 · Boeing 727 · AnkaraLanded short of the runway in heavy snow, reportedly in wind shear.
- Oct 1980 · Boeing 727 · DiyarbakırHijacked; one passenger was killed when soldiers stormed the aircraft.
- Dec 1979 · Fokker F28 · near AnkaraHit a hill on approach after drifting off the landing course.
- Sep 1976 TK452 · Boeing 727 · near IspartaFlew into high ground at night, apparently after the crew mistook a lit road near Isparta for the approach to Antalya.
- Jan 1975 TK345 · Fokker F28 · Sea of MarmaraCrashed into the sea on approach to Istanbul; no official cause was published.
- Mar 1974 TK981 · McDonnell Douglas DC-10 · near ParisA cargo door that looked locked but was not blew open, and the decompression that followed made the aircraft uncontrollable; the door's design was faulted.
- Jan 1974 TK301 · Fokker F28 · IzmirStalled on take-off after over-rotation with frost on the wings, according to the ICAO summary.
- Jan 1972 · McDonnell Douglas DC-9 · near AdanaDiverted with a pressurisation problem and hit the ground while circling to land under low cloud; no official cause was published.
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Turkish Airlines safety questions
How safe is Turkish Airlines?
No one has died in an accident on a Turkish Airlines aircraft since 2009. The 2017 cargo crash in Kyrgyzstan under its flight number was flown by another company. On airlines like Turkish Airlines, the chance of a passenger dying in an accident is about 1 in 80 million per flight. Every fact on this page is sourced — the list is at the bottom.
What is Turkish Airlines' safety rating?
FlyBud doesn't give airlines a made-up score. What can be checked is the record on this page and whether the airline passes IATA's operational safety audit (IOSA), which Turkish Airlines does.
Has Turkish Airlines had a crash?
Yes. Its last fatal accident was flight 1951 at Amsterdam in 2009. In 2017 a cargo flight under a Turkish Airlines flight number, operated by ACT Airlines, crashed near Bishkek.
Where these facts come from
Every fact on this page is from the airline's own filings, the official accident investigation or the published accident record.
- Turkish Airlines investor relations Fleet
- Turkish Airlines annual reports Passengers
- IATA IOSA registry IOSA registration (read 30 Sep 2026)
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 1951
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 6491
- Aviation Safety Network Flight 981
- Wikipedia Founding, passengers (fallback)
- IATA IOSA registry IOSA registration (checked 30 Sep 2026)
- MIT News / Journal of Air Transport Management (Barnett, 2024) risk per flight 2018–2022
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