Eribe Kartal Hürkuş was born on 30 October 1918 in Istanbul. She lost her family at a very young age; her father, Lieutenant Colonel Bedrettin Bey, and her mother, Remziye Hanım, were both martyred during the War of Independence in 1921, within a week of each other. After losing both parents at the age of just two and a half, Eribe was raised and nurtured by her uncle, Vecihi Hürkuş, one of the pioneering figures in Turkish aviation history. Living together with her uncle and Vecihi Hürkuş’s mother, Eribe addressed her uncle as “father.”

Growing up alongside Vecihi Hürkuş, Eribe Kartal Hürkuş became acquainted with aviation at an early age. She received her education at her uncle’s Vecihi Civil Aircraft School in Kadıköy and learned to fly by the age of sixteen. However, she was not interested in becoming a pilot but rather in becoming a parachutist. In 1936, she wished to participate in the Turkish Aeronautical Association’s (THK) aviation demonstrations during the Republic Day celebrations. Although her uncle Vecihi Hürkuş opposed the idea, permission was granted after Eribe’s persistent insistence and a request from Fuat Bulca, then president of the THK.

^{Eribe Kartal Hürkuş (}Anadolu Agency⁾

On 24 October 1936, Eribe Kartal Hürkuş successfully completed her first trial jump in preparation for the Republic Day celebrations. On 29 October 1936, she took off from Ankara in a Caudron 59 aircraft for her final jump. During the exit from the aircraft, her parachute failed to open and she fell approximately 600 meters, crashing to the ground in front of Vecihi Hürkuş’s eyes.

After the accident, Eribe was taken to hospital where she fought for her life and was able to speak with her uncle shortly after impact. According to Vecihi Hürkuş’s account, despite the immense pain she endured, she tried hard not to show it and said, "My dear father, I pulled the main cord, I pulled it hard, I struggled so much but the parachute did not open. Then I pulled the reserve cord, after that I do not remember, my dear father." For nine hours in the hospital, even while in coma, she kept repeating, "My dear father, I opened it, I opened it, but it did not open." At 06.10 in the morning on 30 October 1936, the day of her eighteenth birthday, she passed away, becoming Türkiye’s first female aviation martyr. Vecihi Hürkuş later stated that he abandoned writing the second volume of his memoirs following this tragedy.

Eribe Kartal Hürkuş was buried at the Cebeci Military Cemetery in Ankara. Her gravestone was commissioned by her friend and fellow aviation school student, Sait Bayav. Although the gravestone records her date of death as 29 October 1936 and her date of birth as 22 November 1919, Vecihi Hürkuş’s memoirs and other sources on the subject consistently give her date of birth as 30 October 1918 and her date of death as 30 October 1936.

^{Lines Inscribed on Eribe Kartal Hürkuş’s Gravestone. (}Anadolu Agency⁾

The gravestone bears these lines composed by her friend: “Visitor! Stop. Here they buried a star. Here lies Eribe, Türkiye’s first girl of the skies. Eribe: You embraced the clouds, you remain in our hearts, what does it matter that your shroud was your parachute!” The 71-year-old gravestone, damaged over time, was recovered from among the rubble in 2007 through the efforts of the Tayyareci Vecihi Hürkuş Museum Association and has since been preserved for display in the planned museum.