Turkish cargo plane crash kills at least 37, destroys half of village
Reporting from BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — A Turkish cargo plane crashed Monday in a residential area just outside the main airport in Kyrgyzstan, destroying half of a village and killing at least 37 people in the plane and on the ground, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
The Boeing 747 crashed at 7:40 a.m. local time while approaching Manas airport, south of the capital, Bishkek, in this Central Asian nation.
Footage from the scene showed the plane’s nose stuck inside a brick house and large chunks of debris scattered around. A dozen body bags were laid out on the ground in the yard of one of the homes. A car parked nearby was mangled, and a refrigerator lying open nearby.
The bodies of 15 victims, including five children, all of them Kyrgyz citizens, had been identified by Monday evening, the Kyrgyz government said on its website.
Another 15 people, including six children, were hospitalized in the disaster, according to the health ministry.
Kyrgyz Emergency Situations Minister Kubatbek Boronov said that 23 out of 43 houses in the village have been destroyed. Several dozen private houses are near the fence separating the cottages from the runway.
The plane, which had departed from Hong Kong, belonged to the Istanbul-based cargo company ACT Airlines, which said the dead included the plane’s four Turkish crew members: two pilots, a freight expert and a flight technician.
The Manas airport has been considerably expanded since the United States began to operate a military installation there, using it primarily for its operations in Afghanistan. The U.S. handed the base over to the Kyrgyz military in 2014.
More than 1,000 rescue workers were at the scene by late morning, Abulgaziyev said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Emergency Situations Minister Boronov told reporters that it was foggy at Manas when the plane came down but weather conditions were not critical.
“I woke up because of a bright red light outside,†resident Baktygul Kurbatova, who was slightly injured, told local television. “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 debris would not fall on him.â€
One of the two flight recorders has been recovered at the scene, the office of the Kyrgyz prime minister said on Monday afternoon.
ACT Airlines said on Monday that the crash wasn’t the result of “technical reasons or factors linked to the freight†on the plane. It did not specify the plane’s cargo.
It said the plane’s records book had no record of any technical faults and said that the plane had not encountered any mishaps during its journey or as it proceeded to land at Bishkek.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday called his Kyrgyz counterpart, Erlan Abdildaev, to offer Turkey’s condolences, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The Turkish transportation ministry said it was sending two experts from its accident investigation board to Bishkek to assist Kyrgyz authorities.
The statement followed a telephone call between the Turkish and Kyrgyz transportation ministers, during which the Turkish minister conveyed his condolences and offered “every kind of support†to Kyrgyzstan.
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UPDATES:
8:00 a.m.: This post has been updated with details on the victims and a statement from ACT Airlines that the cause of the crash wasn’t due to technical reasons.
This post originally published at 5:15 a.m.
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