Turkish Airline passengers who landed at Logan International Airport on one of the last flight’s out of Istanbul before Friday’s attempted military coup were stunned by the sudden turn of events.

“Everybody was talking about it, especially the Turkish nationals and the flight attendants,” said Sergei Ivantchev of Greenfield, who was traveling with his daughter, Nicole.

He was one of hundreds of passengers on TK flight 81 that landed at Logan shortly before 6 p.m after taking off from Istanbul in the afternoon.

There was no sense of unrest in the morning, when they landed in Istanbul from Moldova to change planes, Ivantchev said.

Many passengers found out while watching the television news on the flight, he said. Passengers scrambled to learn more about what was happening.

“We asked a flight attendant what was going on, and she said, ‘I don’t know. I know as much as you know,” Ivantchev said.

One Turkish passenger, who gave her name only as Emine, said many Turks feel oppressed.

“This government has been in power for the last 12 years,” she said. “If you’re with them you’re fine, if you’re against them, you know…”

She cited the government’s censorship of the media as an example.

“You can’t even say what you think,” she said. “This was the only way to deal with the situation.”

However, Emine didn’t feel much would come of the country’s latest attempted coup.

“The government is so powerful, [the only way the military would succeed is] if other countries back Turkey up in this sense,” she said.

Some passengers didn’t learn about the unrest until they landed in Boston.

“I texted my mom that we landed and she said, ‘I’m glad you made it. You just missed this huge thing going on in Turkey’,” Madeline Johnston said with surprise.

Her traveling companion, Andrew Faiz, said he was “shocked” to learn of the coup, and that they knew nothing about it when the plane took off at 2:30 p.m., Istanbul time.

Monika Pouzirova, from the Czech Republic, changed planes in Istanbul, on her way to visit friends in the Boston area.

“I just landed and turned on my phone and saw all the messages from my friends saying they hope I’m okay, and asking what was happening,” she said.

Don McLeod, who was waiting at the gate for Pouzirova, wasn’t sure she would arrive, since wifi was cut at Ataturk and Monika hadn’t been able to contact them.

“Half way down we heard they had stopped all traffic and all flights in Istanbul, and we just hoped Monika could make it,” he said.

“We [later] heard that her flight made it out, but we were still nervous.”

“I’m really, really happy I made it,” said Pouzirova. “I just can’t believe it happened.”

Originally published in The Boston Globe on July 16, 2016.