27 February 1914

To inspire patriotism and national sentiment by a spectacular air display over the cities of the Empire, an Ottoman Air Force flight departed from Istanbul for Cairo. The pilots were Captain Fethi Bey and the war minister's adjutant, Second Lieutenant Sadik Bey. Their plane crashed on the slopes of the Golan Heights on 27 February 1914. A train carried their bodies to Damascus, where they were buried in a national ceremony near the tomb of Saladin.