A cargo plane crashed yesterday in a residential area just outside the main airport in Kyrgyzstan, killing at least 37 people, the Kyrgyz Emergency Situations Ministry said on Monday.
The Boeing 747 — which belonged to a Turkish airline — crashed just outside Manas International Airport, south of the capital, Bishkek, killing people in the residential area adjacent to the airport as well as those on the plane.
Reports of the death toll ranged from 37 people according to emergency officials in the Central Asian nation, to 31 reported by the presidential press office which also said rescue teams had recovered parts of nine bodies.
Photo: EPA
Fifteen people including six children have been hospitalized.
Images from the scene showed the aircraft’s nose stuck inside a brick house and large chunks of debris scattered around.
Several dozen private houses cluster just outside the metal fence separating the cottages from the runway. Manas has been considerably expanded since the US began to operate a military installation at Manas airport, using it primarily for its operations in Afghanistan. US troops vacated the base and handed it over to the Kyrgyz military in 2014.
Photo: EPA
“I woke up because of a bright red light outside,” Baktygul Kurbatova, who was slightly injured, told a local TV station. “I couldn’t understand what was happening. It turns out the ceiling and the walls were crashing on us. I was so scared but I managed to cover my son’s face with my hands so that debris would not fall on him.”
More than 1,000 rescue workers were at the scene by late morning in the residential area where 15 houses were destroyed, Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Mukhammetkaly Abulgaziyev said.
Kyrgyz Emergency Situations Minister Kubatbek Boronov told reporters that it was foggy at Manas when the aircraft came down, but weather conditions were not critical.
The aircraft’s flight recorders have not yet been found.
The aircraft, which had departed from Hong Kong, belonged to Istanbul-based cargo company ACT Airlines.
It said in an e-mailed statement that the cause was unknown.
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday called his Kyrgyz counterpart, Erlan Abdildaev, to offer Turkey’s condolences, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
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