Coincidentally, the worst accident involving a Fokker F28 was when a sister ship to this aircraft, operating Turkish Airlines Flight 301, crashed almost exactly one year earlier, in January 1974.

Because another aircraft was about to take off, air traffic control ordered Flight 345 to fly an extended downwind leg.

When, at 18:53, air traffic control attempted to establish contact with Flight 345, it received no response.

[3] A 3 by 3 m (9.8 by 9.8 ft) 200 kg (440 lb) portion from the rear fuselage with five window frames was recovered on March 17, 2009, by shrimp trawling fishermen off the Avcılar-Florya coast.

The wreckage was handed over to Turkish Airlines after inspection by Stuart Kline, an American historian of aviation living in Turkey.