All seven aboard Qatar military helicopter die in crash
Four of the dead were Qatar Armed Forces personnel, one served with the Qatar-Turkey joint forces and two were technicians, the Turkish and Qatari defence ministries said.
Sunday March 22, 2026
A Qatari military helicopter went down in Qatar’s territorial waters, killing all seven people on board — among them three Turkish nationals — according to authorities in Doha and Ankara.
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In statements issued Sunday, the Qatari and Turkish defence ministries said the aircraft suffered a technical malfunction before crashing. Qatar’s Defence Ministry said the failure occurred during a “routine duty”.
Four of the dead were Qatar Armed Forces personnel, one served with the Qatar-Turkey joint forces and two were technicians, the Turkish and Qatari defence ministries said.
Qatar’s Defence Ministry named the victims as pilot Captain Mubarak Salem Daway al-Marri, Sergeant Fahad Hadi Ghanem al-Khayarin, Corporal Mohammed Maher Mohammed and Captain Saeed Nasser Samekh — all with the Qatar Armed Forces — along with Major Sinan Tastekin of the Qatar-Turkiye Joint Forces, and Turkish civilian collaborators Suleiman Cemra Kahraman and Ismail Anas Can.
The ministry said it offered “its sincere condolences” to the victims’ families.
Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence said one Turkish soldier and two personnel from Turkish defence firm Aselsan were among those killed, and described the incident as occurring after a technical issue during a training flight.
It added that Qatari authorities would conduct inspections to determine the precise cause of the crash.
Beyond the reported malfunction, officials provided no immediate details on what triggered the incident, and there was no indication the helicopter was brought down by hostile action.
Repeated attacks
The crash comes as the region remains on edge amid intensifying tensions.
Qatar has endured repeated strikes since the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, with the Gulf state intercepting hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles.
Earlier this week, Iranian attacks on Ras Laffan Industrial City — Qatar’s main natural gas facility — caused “significant damage”.
Those strikes have reduced Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity by 17 percent and are expected to cut annual revenue by about $20bn, QatarEnergy CEO and state minister for energy affairs Saad al-Kaabi told the Reuters news agency on Thursday.
Al-Kaabi said the unprecedented attacks damaged two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities.