The cause of the fatal crash of Atlasjet Airlines Flight 4203, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (TC-AKM) in the mountains of southwest Turkey on Nov. 30 remains a mystery inasmuch as the weather conditions were favorable and the pilot had indicated problems during his final approach to Isparta. Killed in the crash were all 49 passengers and seven crew members on board, all Turkish.  The twin-jet had departed Istanbul. It is reported that the aircraft’s cockpit voice and flight data recorders were recovered from the wreckage. The MD-83 slipped off the radar shortly before it was due to land, 7.5 miles from Isparta-Suleyman Demirel Airport (ISE). The pilot told tower controllers that he saw the airport. That was the jetliner’s last communications. Unexplained is why the aircraft crashed far off its airport approach path. The Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219-powered MD-83 entered commercial service in 1994. Atlasjet, a Turkish carrier, operates domestic flights and charter flights to Europe, Kazakhstan and the UAE. The last fatal air accident in Turkey occurred on May 26, 2003, when a Yak-42D operated by Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines crashed, taking 75 lives.