A Turkish cargo plane has crashed while trying to land in dense fog in Kyrgyzstan, destroying half a village and killing 37 people onboard and on the ground.
The ACT Airlines Boeing 747 came down just outside Manas airport, where it was scheduled for a stopover between Hong Kong and Istanbul.
Five children were among 15 dead identified by Monday evening, all of them Kyrgyz citizens, the government said. An additional 15 people, including six children, were taken to hospital after being injured by the falling plane.
Footage and pictures from the scene showed the nose of the plane stuck inside the wreckage of a brick house, with other large chunks of debris scattered around.
“I woke up because of a bright red light outside,” said Baktygul Kurbatova, who was slightly injured, speaking to 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 that debris would not fall on him.”.
The cause of the crash remains unclear, though the AFP news agency quoted a Kyrgyz official as saying it was the result of “pilot error”.
Kyrgyz emergency situations minister Kubatbek Boronov said it was foggy at Manas when the plane came down, but that weather conditions were not critical.
ACT Airlines said that the crash was not the result of “technical reasons or factors linked to the freight” on the plane. It did not specify the plane’s cargo.
One of the plane’s two flight recorders was recovered at the scene, according to the Kyrgyz prime minister’s office.
Mr Boronov said the village where the plane crashed included more than a dozen homes next to the runway fence. Of the 43 houses in the village, 23 had been destroyed.
“Around seven o’clock in the morning I heard a strong swat (noise) and after that all the nearest houses were shaken,” said local resident Andrei Andreyev.
“Of course, everyone got frightened and started to run out of the houses to the street. Nobody understood what was going on because there was a fog, the weather was not good.”
ACT Airlines said in an emailed statement that its plane “crashed on landing at Bishkek at the end of the runway for an unknown reason”. It said the plane was being flown by its “four-person team” and more details would be released “when we get clear information”.
[Independent UK]
