Seven people were on board, with Qatar’s interior ministry saying specialised operations continue to find the last missing person.
Published On 22 Mar 202622 Mar 2026
At least six people on board a Qatari military helicopter have been killed in a crash in the Gulf state’s waters after a “technical malfunction”, the government said.
Seven people were on board, with Qatar’s interior ministry on Sunday saying specialised operations continue to find the last missing person.
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Earlier on Sunday, Qatar’s defence ministry posted on X that the helicopter had a technical malfunction during a “routine duty”, which led to its crash in the territorial waters of the country.
No immediate information was available on the cause beyond the technical malfunction, and there was no indication that the crash was the result of hostile action.
The defence ministry announced the names of the deceased as following: Captain (Pilot) Mubarak Salem Daway Al-Marri, Sergeant Fahad Hadi Ghanem Al-khayarin, and Corporal Mohammed Maher Mohammed from Qatar Armed Forces; Major Sinan Tastekin from Qatar-Turkiye Joint Forces; and Turkish civilian collaborators Suleiman Cemra Kahraman and Ismail Anas Can.
The ministry’s statement said search operation for Captain (Pilot) Saeed Nasser Samekh from the Qatar Armed Forces is still in progress as it extended “its sincere condolences” to the families of the victims.
In a statement, the Turkish Defence Ministry said one of its soldiers and two personnel from Turkish defence firm Aselsan were killed in the helicopter crash, adding the aircraft had crashed due to a technical issue during a training flight.
The statement added Qatari authorities would carry out inspections to determine the exact cause of the crash.
Repeated attacks
The incident occurred amid heightened regional tensions.
Qatar has faced repeated strikes since the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, as it intercepted hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles.
Qatar said the Iranian attacks earlier this week on the Ras Laffan Industrial City, the country’s main natural gas facility, caused “significant damage”.
The attacks have knocked out 17 percent of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20bn loss in annual revenue, Saad al-Kaabi, QatarEnergy’s CEO and state minister for energy affairs told the Reuters news agency on Thursday.
Aal-Kaabi said two of Qatar’s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes, adding that the attacks had taken out 17 percent of Doha’s export capacity.