Kazakh air crash kills 21
30 January, 2013
ALMATY: All 21 people on board a domestic flight in Kazakhstan operated by SCAT airline died on Tuesday when their jet crashed on approach to Almaty airport in thick fog, officials said. "According to preliminary information, there were 16 passengers on board — including one child — and five crew members," the emergencies ministry said in a statement. Both the airline and the prosecutor general's office had initially put the toll at 20 dead before revising it up by one. Television footage of the crash site showed the wreckage in a snow-covered field a few kilometres (miles) away from the financial centre's main airport. The Canadian-made plane crashed just a few hundred metres (yards) from a major highway linking the airport to nearby cities. The Interfax news agency said flights continued from Almaty airport even after the accident and that some jets flew directly over the Bombardier CRJ-200's wreckage. The airline said the jet had made one approach to the airport and was about to rise again for a second approach when it suddenly veered off course and plunged to the ground. "On behalf of the Kazakh people and myself, I express the deepest sympathies to the relatives and loved ones of those who died," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said a statement released by his office. End.
|
