ALMATY | Four people died and two survived when a military plane crashed on Saturday trying to land in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, authorities said.
“According to preliminary data, four people died and two injured were taken to the nearest hospital,” the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Central Asian country said in a statement.
According to Almaty airport (south), communication with the Antonov-26 ceased around 5:20 pm local “during the approach phase” of the landing then “the aircraft crashed at the end of the runway” .
The Kazakh ministry said the aircraft was on a flight from the capital Nur-Sultan to Almaty. No reason has yet been given, but a strong fog was touching the city at the time of the crash.
According to the Russian Interfax news agency, the device belonged to the National Security Committee, the Kazakh special services.
The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, offered his condolences to the victims in a message on Twitter and announced that “the work to clarify the reasons for the disaster has started”.
In October 2020, an Antonov-26 had already crashed on landing in Ukraine, killing 21 people and one survivor.
Almaty airport had already been the scene of an air accident in December 2019, when a plane from the local company Bek Air with 98 people on board crashed about fifteen minutes after takeoff. Twelve people had died.