Incident
While approaching runway 06 at Istanbul-Yeşilköy Airport at night, the crew experienced a failure of all runway lights due to an electrical power failure. The crew initiated a go-around maneuver. Twenty-two seconds later, the power was restored.
Sequence of Events
The crew contacted air traffic control to request a landing clearance. However, a Pan Am Boeing 707 was taking off from the same runway, so ATC instructed the crew to extend a downwind circuit to the west. A few minutes later, while cruising under visual flight rules (VFR) at an altitude of 800 feet, the airplane went out of control and crashed into the Marmara Sea, approximately 30 kilometers west of the airport.
Aftermath
The aircraft was destroyed in the impact. All 42 occupants were killed.
Investigation
The official investigation determined that the exact cause of the accident could not be identified. However, it is believed that the pilot-in-command may have lost control of the airplane after suffering spatial disorientation while flying by night under VFR mode over the Marmara Sea without any visual reference points.