A Turkish cargo jet has crashed near Kyrgyzstan’s Manas airport, killing at least 37 people, most of them residents of a village struck by the Boeing 747 as it tried to land in dense fog, Kyrgyz officials said.
According to the airport administration, the plane was supposed to make a stopover at Manas, near the capital city Bishkek, on its way from Hong Kong to Istanbul. It crashed when trying to land in poor visibility at 7.31 am (0131 GMT) on Monday.
The plane ploughed for a few hundred metres through the village of Dacha-Suu, damaging several buildings, said Mukhammed Svarov, head of crisis management centre at the emergencies ministry. At least 37 people had been killed, the ministry said. It is that thought this includes 12 children from the village with many others injured, reports Daily Mail.
Smoke was still thick in the area at 0600GMT and small fires burned in different parts of the village, but emergency services had nearly extinguished them.
Zumriyat Rezakhanova, a resident of Dacha-Suu, said the plane fell “right on the homes” where residents were sleeping.
According to Daily Mail, a nine-year-old boy ran home from school to find his entire family had been killed after a the crashing sound was heard throughout the whole village.
The number of houses destroyed or damaged by the crash could number 60, according to local reports. Other reports said the crash was 1.5 to 2 km from the runway.
One crew member is believed to have survived and a number of injured people have been transported to hospital.
Kyrgyzstan’s transport ministry said there were five people on board.
#TK6491 a MyCargo Airlines Boeing 747-400F TC-MCL, 1st delivered to Singapore Cargo in 2003. https://t.co/48HSEqywlh https://t.co/n1HpEnTxir pic.twitter.com/NLmEnYv1GE
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 16, 2017
