Turkish Airlines Flight 301 was a passenger flight operated by a Fokker F28-1000 Fellowship of Turkish Airlines registered as TC-JAO that crashed during takeoff at İzmir Cumaovası Airport on 26 January 1974 while en route to Istanbul Yeşilköy Airport, killing 67 of its 73 passengers and crew.

The aircraft spent the night prior to the accident outside in freezing temperatures, causing frost accumulation on the wings, which was unnoticed by the crew before departure.

"[7] The same aircraft was "recently" forced to return to Van Ferit Melen Airport after take-off after one of its doors opened mid-flight.

[8] According to an unnamed Turkish Airlines official, a group of Dutch technicians came to Istanbul and performed maintenance on the aircraft to fix its issues "some time ago".

[9] The pilot in command, İlhan Günaydın, completed the pre-flight walk-around and the plane was ready for departure at 07:07 local time (05:07 GMT) to fly to Istanbul.

The impact ruptured the fuel tank located inside the left wing, causing the plane to catch fire.

The tail section overtook the fuselage and impacted it between the cockpit and the passenger cabin, causing them to disintegrate as well and turning the latter upside down.

[10] The whole aircraft apart from the cockpit and tail sections was destroyed by the fire, which made it impossible to save all the occupants with facilities available at the airport.

[12] Minister of Transport Ferda Güley, who started his duty only a day prior to the accident, requested a brain surgeon for a critically injured crew member.

[3] The day after the crash, a flight instructor on board as a passenger claimed that the plane rotated too early and stalled as a result.

[23] The probable cause mentioned in the final report was that "[t]he aircraft stalled on take-off due to over-rotation and frost accretion on the wings.

"[24] Calculations based on temperature and load showed that the plane would have reached its takeoff speed after 2,800 feet (850 m) of runway.

The investigators attributed this loss of speed to a "more than normal" angle of attack, meaning that the pilots over-rotated the aircraft, causing it to stall.

[23] On 18 May 1990, Milliyet newspaper, based on the admissions made by Güley in his book Kendini Yaşamak: Anılar, reported that the cause of the accident was due to the pilots being drunk.

He stated that he kept the secret with Ecevit to not "lose the trust of the people", as an accident like this "would've left a black mark that Turkish Airlines wouldn't have been able to clear for years.