Turkish military helicopter crashes on suburban street in Istanbul, killing 4 soldiers onboard

• A Turkish military helicopter crashed into a quiet Istanbul suburb on Monday morning, smashing into an apartment block on the way down.
• Four soldiers inside the UH-1 craft were killed, and one was severely injured after the crash in the Sancaktepe district.
• The helicopter was heading for Samandira air force base, and crashed while attempting an emergency landing.
• Why the aircraft was trying an emergency landing is not clear. Turkish officials are investigating.

A Turkish military helicopter crashed into a residential street in Istanbul on Monday morning, killing four military personnel onboard and leaving one severely injured.

The UH-1 helicopter went down in the quiet suburban district of Sancaktepe, striking a four-story apartment block on the way down, the Associated Press (AP) reported. There were no civilian casualties.

The crash took place around 11 a.m. local time, Agence France-Presse reported.

The helicopter was on a training mission heading to the nearby Samandira air force base, but crashed after the crew had failed to conduct an emergency landing, Turkish defense minister Hulusi Akar told reporters, according to the AP.

The pilot may have been trying to land the helicopter on a deserted plot of land in order to prevent civilian deaths, Akar added.

He did not say why the jet was attempting an emergency landing, but said investigators were looking into it.

A total of five people were on board. Two officers and two non-commissioned officers were killed, and a sergeant is in serious condition in hospital, Akar said. It's not clear which one of them was the pilot.

Photos of the crash site on social media showed the helicopter completely overturned.