Atlasjet Flight 4203 Isparta – Turkey

Aviation history is unfortunately full of tragic accidents. In some of these accidents, the causes can be fully explained. However, in some accidents, even after a long time, all the details may not be revealed. Let’s take a look Atlasjet flight 4203 together.

Atlasjet flight 4203 was a flight planned by Atlasjet company from Istanbul Ataturk Airport to Isparta Suleyman Demirel Airport in Turkey. However, all passengers and crew died in the accident.

Atlasjet flight 4203 was scheduled from Istanbul Ataturk Airport to Isparta Suleyman Demirel Airport on 29 November 2007. Due to the late return of the plane from the previous Pristina flight, the flight took off with a delay of about one hour. A total of 50 passengers and 7 crew members were on the flight. Flight KK4203 departing from Istanbul began to approach Suleyman Demirel Airport approximately 45 minutes after take-off. The plane crashed in the Keciborlu region, 18 km from Isparta. Tuncay Doganer, the head of Atlasjet Airlines, announced that no one survived in the accident.

KK4203 McDonnell Douglas MD-83

The plane Atlasjet leased from World Focus Airlines was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83. The plane was being commanded by World Focus Airlines pilots at the time of the accident.

Nuclear physicists Engin Arık, Fatma Senel Boydag and 4 other academics were on the plane. They were on the plane to attend a physics conference at Isparta Suleyman Demirel University.

Academics on Board – CERN Experiment

Among the passengers who died were scientists from Bogazici and Dogus University to attend a conference on “physics”, as invited by Suleyman Demirel University.

Academicians from Bogazici University on the plane are: Prof.Dr. Engin Arık, research assistant Ozgen Berkol Dogan, and graduate student Engin Abat. Academicians from Dogus University are: Prof.Dr. Senel Fatma Boydag, Assoc.Dr. İskender Hikmet and research assistant Mustafa Fidan.

Prof.Dr. Engin Arık worked on the ‘Atlas Experiment’ at the ‘European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and these 6 scientists were also assigned to the “Turkish Accelerator Center Technical Design and Test Laboratories” project. In addition, this project started two years ago and the State Planning Organization supported it.

The accident has still not been fully elucidated. Such that, it was claimed that the accident could have been a sabotage because Prof.Dr. Engin Arık and his accompanying scientists were also on the plane.