At Least a Dozen Dead After Plane Slams into Building in Kazakhstan

A plane carrying 98 people from Kazakhstan crashed into a building shortly after its takeoff on Friday morning, killing at least a dozen people and injuring over 50 more.

In a statement following the incident, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar said that the cause of the crash is still unclear but aviation authorities believe it was either a result of a pilot error or a technical failure.

According to officials airport officials, the Bek Air aircraft smashed into a concrete fence and a two-story building shortly after takeoff. The flight was scheduled to fly from Almaty, the country’s largest city, to the capital Nur-Sultan.

The flight was carrying 93 passengers and five crew members. At least a dozen people were killed on impact, including six children and the captain of the plane, while a further 50 were taken to the hospital. Of those receiving treatment, at least 17 were said to be in an “extremely serious condition.”

All Bek Air and Fokker 100 flights were suspended following the crash, while Kazakhstani President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared tomorrow a nationwide day of mourning.

One survivor told local media outlet Tengrinews that she heard a “terrifying sound” before the plane crashed “The plane was flying at a tilt,” she said. “Everything was like in a movie: screaming, shouting, people crying,” she said.

Another survivor described how the plane began dropping at an angle shortly after takeoff. “At some point we started falling, not vertically, but at an angle. It seemed like control over the plane had been lost,” Aslan Nazaraliyev told the Vremya newspaper.”

Among the fatalities was Dana Kruglova, the executive editor of the website Informburo.kz, who took a last-minute decision to spend New Year with her family.

“Dana Kruglova was a real journalist,” Informburo.kz Editor-in-Chief Mikhail Dorofeev wrote in a statement announcing her death. “Her articles resonated … Dana was honest, courageous and objective at the same time. This is a terrible loss for all of us.”

Kazakhstan’s safety record in aviation has previously been a source of controversy. In 2009, the European Union banned all Kazakh airlines, with the exception of the flagship carrier Air Astana, from operating within the territory as they failed to meet the necessary standards. The ban was lifted back in 2015.

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