ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN - A Bek Air plane with 98 people aboard crashed near the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan on Friday, killing at least 15 people authorities in Almaty said. At least 66 others survived with injuries, 50 of them hospitalized.
The plane was heading for the capital, Nur-Sultan, the country’s capital formerly known as Astana, and “lost altitude during takeoff and broke through a concrete fence” before hitting a two-story building, Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee said in a statement.
According to the Emergencies Committee, at least nine people were killed. In a statement on its Facebook page, the airport said there was no fire and a rescue operation got underway immediately following the crash.
A Reuters reporter travelling to the airport said there was thick fog in the area.
The plane belonged to Kazakh carrier Bek Air, which operates a fleet of Fokker 100 jets. The aviation committee said it was suspending all flights of that type of aircraft pending an investigation.
A Fokker-100 is 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.
“Those responsible will face tough punishment in accordance with the law,” Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev tweeted, expressing condolences to the victims and their families.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.