At least six people on board a Qatari military helicopter have been killed in a crash in the Gulf state’s waters after a “technical malfunction,” the government said. Seven people were on board, with Qatar’s interior ministry saying specialized operations continue to find the last missing person.
Earlier on Sunday, Qatar’s defense ministry posted that the helicopter had a technical malfunction during a “routine duty,” which led to its crash in the territorial waters of the country. No immediate information was available on the cause beyond the technical malfunction, and there was no indication that the crash was the result of hostile action.
The defense ministry announced the names of the deceased as following: Captain (Pilot) Mubarak Salem Daway Al-Marri, Sergeant Fahad Hadi Ghanem Al-khayarin, and Corporal Mohammed Maher Mohammed from Qatar Armed Forces; Major Sinan Tastekin from Qatar-Turkiye Joint Forces; and Turkish civilian collaborators Suleiman Cemra Kahraman and Ismail Anas Can. The ministry’s statement said the search operation for Captain (Pilot) Saeed Nasser Samekh from the Qatar Armed Forces is still in progress as it extended “its sincere condolences” to the families of the victims.
In a statement, the Turkish Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers and two personnel from Turkish defense firm Aselsan were killed in the helicopter crash, adding the aircraft had crashed due to a technical issue during a training flight. The statement added that Qatari authorities would carry out inspections to determine the exact cause of the crash.
The incident occurred amid heightened regional tensions. Qatar has faced repeated strikes since the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, as it intercepted hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles. Qatar said the Iranian attacks earlier this week on the Ras Laffan Industrial City, the country’s main natural gas facility, caused “significant damage”. The attacks have knocked out 17 percent of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20 billion loss in annual revenue, Saad al-Kaabi, QatarEnergy’s CEO, and state minister for energy affairs told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. Al-Kaabi said two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes, adding that the attacks had taken out 17 percent of Doha’s export capacity.
