Bek Air plane crashes in Kazakhstan
A Bek Air plane with 100 people onboard crashed in Kazakhstan early on Friday. According to airport officials, the Bek Air aircraft went down shortly take off from Almaty airport in the wee hours of the day (local time). The plane struck a concrete barrier and crashed into a two-storey building, officials said.
As of now, at least 14 casualties have been confirmed in the plane crash, while at least 35 others survived with injuries, officials in Almaty said. There was no fire upon impact.
Emergency service personnel have rushed to the scene as rescue operations are underway. Information on more casualties or survivors was yet not available.
Bek Air plane crashes in Kazakhstan
According to reports, the Bek plane had taken off for Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan's capital city.
There were 95 passengers and five crew on board, Almaty's airport said, adding the plane lost communication at 07:22 local time (01:22 GMT).
In a statement on its Facebook page, the airport said there was no fire and rescue operations got underway immediately following the crash.
The aircraft was identified as a Fokker-100, a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner. The company manufacturing the aircraft went bankrupt in 1996 and the production of the Fokker-100 stopped the following year.
All Bek Air and Fokker-100 flights in Kazakhstan have been suspended pending the investigation of the crash, the country’s authorities said.
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