A Turkish Airlines pilot who flew President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to İstanbul on the night of Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt was reportedly dismissed after an internal review.
The company completed an examination in February concerning the night of the coup attempt and then severed ties with him.
Yurtseven came under scrutiny because he left his aircraft’s transponder on during the flight and later failed a Turkish Airlines security review.
The report also said the pilot was found to have deposited money in Bank Asya, a now-closed lender that was linked by Turkish authorities to the Gülen movement.
In his defense, Yurtseven reportedly said the money had been deposited into an account opened for his child’s school payments and that he had no connection to the movement.
Ankara designates the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, as a terrorist organization and blames it for the coup attempt. The movement denies involvement in the coup or any terrorist activity.
Yurtseven later joined a private airline and was receiving training for the aircraft he would operate in his new position.
