A technical malfunction brought down a Qatari military helicopter in the country’s territorial waters, killing all seven people on board, the defence ministries of Qatar and Turkey confirmed Sunday.
Among the dead were four members of the Qatar Armed Forces, one soldier attached to the Qatar-Turkey joint forces, and two civilian technicians from Turkish defence company Aselsan.
Qatar’s Defence Ministry named the victims as Captain Mubarak Salem Daway al-Marri, Sergeant Fahad Hadi Ghanem al-Khayarin, Corporal Mohammed Maher Mohammed, and Captain Saeed Nasser Samekh — all from the Qatar Armed Forces — along with Major Sinan Tastekin of the Qatar-Turkiye Joint Forces, and Turkish civilians Suleiman Cemra Kahraman and Ismail Anas Can. The ministry offered its “sincere condolences” to the victims’ families.
Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence, which described the flight as a training mission, confirmed that one of its soldiers and the two Aselsan personnel were among those killed. Qatari authorities are expected to conduct inspections to determine the precise cause, the Turkish ministry said. Neither government indicated any hostile action was involved.
The crash comes as Qatar navigates an increasingly strained security environment. Since the United States and Israel launched a joint offensive against Iran on February 28, Qatar has intercepted hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles directed at the Gulf state.
The strikes have exacted a heavy economic toll. QatarEnergy CEO and state minister for energy affairs Saad al-Kaabi told Reuters on Thursday that two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids facilities were damaged in attacks on the Ras Laffan Industrial City — cutting roughly 17 percent of the country’s LNG export capacity and costing an estimated $20 billion in annual revenue.
