Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Plane with Nearly 100 Aboard Crashes in Kazakhstan; At Least 12 Dead, Dozens Hurt

Plane with Nearly 100 Aboard Crashes in  Kazakhstan; At Least 12 Dead, Dozens Hurt

NUR-SULTAN - A Kazakhstan plane with 98 people aboard crashed shortly after takeoff early Friday, killing at least 12 people, while 49 were hospitalized with injuries, Kazakh officials said.
The cause of the crash in the Central Asian nation was unclear, but authorities were looking at two possible scenarios: pilot error and technical failure, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister Roman Sklyar said.
The Bek Air aircraft hit a concrete fence and a two-story building after takeoff from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital. It lost attitude at 7:22 a.m. (0122 GMT), the Almaty International Airport said.
The plane was flying to Nur-Sultan, the capital formerly known as Astana.
Local authorities had earlier put the death toll at 15, but the Interior Ministry later revised the figure downward, without explaining. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement on its Facebook page, the airport said there was no fire and a rescue operation got underway immediately following the crash.
Kazakhstan’s air safety record is far from spotless. In 2009, all Kazakh airlines, with the exception of the flagship carrier Air Astana, were banned from operating in the European Union because they didn’t meet international safety standards. The ban was lifted in 2016. (VOA)