For the first time in its history, Turkish Airlines has named one of its aircraft “Kushimoto,” giving a foreign city name to an Airbus A330-200 passenger plane. Kushimoto, a Japanese town, is the site where the Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul sank in a storm on its return journey after visiting Japan. Two key events symbolize the strong friendship between Turkey and Japan: the tragic story of the Ertuğrul Frigate, and the rescue of Japanese citizens stranded in Iran in 1985 by a special Turkish Airlines flight ordered by then-Prime Minister Turgut Özal. 

To commemorate over a century of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Japan, Turkish Airlines decided to tell the story of the Kushimoto aircraft through a documentary. 

Our faculty members, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yavuz Cankara and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Özden Cankara, appeared as speakers in this Kushimoto documentary. The full documentary can be viewed on Turkish Airlines’ official YouTube channel. The relevant video can be accessed via the link below.

Kushimoto | Türkiye & Japan: A Journey Together | Documentary - Turkish Airlines