Businessman Ali Sabancı and his wife Vuslat Doğan Sabancı have been seriously injured after the speedboat they were travelling in crashed into rocks near to the Greek island of Leros.
Mr Sabancı, 54, who is the chairperson of the company that owns low-cost Turkish carrier Pegasus Airlines, was airlifted to a hospital in Istanbul where he remains in intensive care. His wife Vuslat, 52, has suffered numerous fractures and was initially being treated in a hospital in Bodrum, but is expected to be transferred to the same Istanbul hospital as her husband.
The incident happened late on Thursday night. Local reports state that the couple were vacationing in Greece and were on a boat with four others when it crashed into rocks near Leros in the southern Aegean Sea.
A statement from the Greek coastguard confirmed six people was on the speedboat when it crashed – four Turkish nationals, one South African and one British national.
All six were taken to a hospital on Leros and four of them were released the same night. A private ambulance boat took a Turkish man and woman to Turkiye, the statement said, without identifying any of the patients. An investigation into the crash has been launched.
Billionaire businessman Ali Sabancı is a member of one of Turkiye’s wealthiest families. He set up his own conglomerate, Esas Holding, in 2000 with his late father, Şevket Sabancı, and sister Emine Sabancı. The group acquired Pegasus Airlines in 2005, building it into Turkiye’s second-largest airline.
Mrs Sabancı is the daughter of former media mogul Aydın Doğan, whose family is behind another of Turkiye’s leading conglomerates. She is a self-taught artist and philanthropist.
