At Least 15 Dead after Passenger Plane Crashes in Kazakhstan, Flights Suspended Pending Investigation

By Staff, Agencies

A Kazakh plane with 98 people aboard crashed shortly after takeoff early Friday, killing at least 15 people, officials in Almaty said.

At least 66 others survived with injuries, 50 of them hospitalized.

The Bek Air aircraft hit a concrete fence and a two-story building after takeoff from Almaty International Airport. It lost attitude at 7:22 a.m., the airport stated.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the airport said there was no fire and a rescue operation got underway immediately following the crash.

Around 1,000 people were working at the snow-covered site of the crash. The weather in Almaty was clear, with mild sub-zero temperatures that are common at this time of the year.

Footage showed the front of the broken-up fuselage rammed a house and the rear of the plane lying in the field next to the airport.

The plane was flying to Nur-Sultan, the country’s capital formerly known as Astana.

The aircraft was identified as a Fokker-100, a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner.

All Bek Air and Fokker-100 flights in Kazakhstan have been suspended pending the investigation of the crash, the country’s authorities said.