Widow of Geçitkale crash pilot ‘still doesn’t know cause of accident’
THE widow of a pilot who died in a plane crash at Geçitkale airport on October 29, 2019, has said she still doesn’t know what caused the accident.
Serkan Özcezarlı and Hakan Çetinkaya, both 46, were killed when their two-seater Italian-made ICP Ventura Ultralight “training” plane spiralled out of control, hitting the ground near the runway and bursting into flames.
“The manner of the crash has not been explained yet,” Aysan Özcezarlı said at a recent press conference.
“We are still waiting for the crash investigation report. It is either not completed yet or not being explained to us.”
Recalling the day tragedy struck, Mrs Özcezarlı said that she and her daughters had both learned of Mr Özcezarlı’s death via news websites and complained that she had not been allowed into the crash site “even though members of the media were”.
Mrs Özcezarlı’s lawyer accused Public Works and Transport Minister Tolga Atakan of remaining silent on the issue.
“It’s been a year and we have still not heard a thing, this tragedy should end, please intervene [Mr Atakan],” the lawyer said.
Mrs Özcezarlı stated that while a private insurance company had “fulfilled their responsibilities and paid compensation” the government had not paid any compensation.
She described her late husband as the “one and only instructor pilot of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” who “widened his experiences, mostly through his own effort”.
Mr Özcezarlı had “waved the Turkish and TRNC flags in European countries, bringing trophies from competitions yet was not deemed worthy of martyrdom” Mrs Özcezarlı added.
A spokesman for the Public Works and Transport Ministry told CyprusToday that he could not comment on Mrs Özcezarlı’s criticisms because “we have not yet received the [crash investigation] report”.