Russian firefighting plane crashes in Turkey; 8 killed

ZEYNEP BILGINSOY and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — The Russian Defense Ministry says 8 Russian and Turkish crew members were killed after a firefighting plane leased from Russia crashed Saturday in a mountainous area in southern Turkey. The amphibious Beriev Be-200 crashed while trying to land in Turkey’s Adana province. A team to investigate the accident was dispatched. Wildfires in Turkey’s Mediterranean region began in late July and have incinerated thousands of acres of forests, mostly in the seaside provinces of Mugla and Antalya. The deaths in the plane crash bring Turkey’s overall death toll in the wildfires in the last month to 16.  Northern Turkey is also suffering from floods that have killed at least 57 people.