{"id":489169,"date":"2026-03-22T11:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T11:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489169\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T11:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T11:17:08","slug":"six-dead-as-qatar-military-helicopter-crashes-after-technical-malfunction-military-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489169\/","title":{"rendered":"Six dead as Qatar military helicopter crashes after \u2018technical malfunction\u2019 | Military News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven people were on board, with Interior Ministry saying operations continue \u200cto find one missing person.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 22 Mar 202622 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

At least six people on board a Qatari military helicopter have been killed in a crash in the Gulf state\u2019s waters after a \u201ctechnical malfunction\u201d, the government said.<\/p>\n

Seven people were on board, with Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Interior saying on Sunday that specialised operations continue \u200cto find another missing person.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Earlier on Sunday, Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Defence\u00a0posted on X that the helicopter had a technical malfunction during a \u201croutine duty\u201d, which led to its crash in the territorial waters of the country.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to the Defence Ministry, the deceased were identified as pilot Captain Mubarak Salem Daway al-Marri, Sergeant Fahad Hadi Ghanem al-Khayarin, Corporal Mohammed Maher Mohammed (all three from Qatar Armed Forces); Major Sinan Tastekin (Qatar-Turkiye Joint Forces); as well as Turkish civilian collaborators Suleiman Cemra Kahraman and Ismail Anas Can.<\/p>\n

The ministry\u2019s statement said the search operation for another pilot, Captain Saeed Nasser Samekh from the Qatar Armed Forces, is still in progress.<\/p>\n

The Defence Ministry extended \u201cits sincere condolences\u201d to the families of the victims.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Turkish Ministry of National Defence \u200csaid in a statement that one of its \u2060soldiers and two personnel from Turkish defence \u2060firm Aselsan were killed \u2060in the helicopter crash, adding the aircraft had crashed due to a technical issue during \u2060a training flight.<\/p>\n

The statement added that Qatari authorities would carry out inspections \u200cto determine the exact cause of \u200cthe \u200ccrash.<\/p>\n

Repeated attacks<\/p>\n

The incident occurred amid heightened regional tensions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Qatar has faced repeated strikes since the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, with the Gulf country intercepting hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Iranian attacks on the Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar\u2019s main natural gas facility, caused \u201csignificant damage\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iranian attacks \u200chave knocked out 17 percent of Qatar\u2019s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export capacity, causing an estimated $20bn loss<\/a> in annual revenue, Saad al-Kaabi, QatarEnergy\u2019s CEO and state minister for energy affairs, told the Reuters news agency on Thursday. He said two of Qatar\u2019s 14 LNG trains and one of its two gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities were damaged in the unprecedented strikes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven people were on board, with Interior Ministry saying operations continue \u200cto find one missing person. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,632,151,50,10040,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-489169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-news","tag-qatar","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}