All 20 crew killed in Turkish military plane crash in Georgia after leaving Azerbaijan

All 20 personnel on board the Turkish military cargo plane en route from Azerbaijan to Turkey that crashed in Georgia on Tuesday were killed, according to the country's defence minister Yasar Guler.

The C-130 plane crashed in the eastern Georgian municipality of Sighnaghi, close to the border with Azerbaijan, shortly after taking off from Ganja. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash.

A Turkish accident investigation team reached the crash site and was inspecting the wreckage of the plane, in coordination with Georgian authorities, a source at the Turkish defence ministry said.

Georgia's Interior Minister Gela Geladze said authorities have so far recovered the remains of 18 victims, adding that efforts were continuing to locate the other two.

Geladze also said that further details in connection with the accident will be revealed "in stages." The interior minister said due to military sensitivities and in coordination with Ankara and its demands, information in an ongoing investigation cannot be promptly released.

The wreckage of the aircraft was spread across a plain that includes farmland and is surrounded by hills. Debris was scattered across multiple locations, according to Turkish media outlets who were reporting from the site.

On Tuesday, a Turkish state-run agency quoted the Georgian aviation authority saying that contact with the plane was lost a few minutes after it entered Georgian airspace. The plane had not issued a distress signal, it said.

C-130 military cargo planes are widely used by Turkey's armed forces for transporting personnel and handling logistical operations. Military flights between Azerbaijan and Turkey are routine, as the two countries have close ties and military cooperation.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Georgia's Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili extended their condolences to their Turkish counterparts after Tuesday's crash.

"We are deeply shocked," Aliyev said in a message, according to a Turkish state-run agency.

The US Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, extended his condolences and reaffirmed Washington's solidarity with Ankara. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also offered his sympathies and thanked the late NATO personnel for their service.

There was no immediate information available on funeral arrangements for the remains of the 18 personnel that have been located and identified.

Turkish media say the plane was manufactured in 1968 and initially served in Saudi Arabia before being added to the Turkish Armed Forces inventory in 2010.

The plane belonged to the 12th Air Base Command in the central Turkish city of Kayseri, where it departed on Monday to Ganja to pick up personnel. It was scheduled to return to Turkey to the northern city of Merzifon.