28th December, 2019
Kazakhstan observes a day of mourning on Saturday after a plane crashed just after take-off on Friday and killed 12 people, including the pilot.
The government in the Central Asian country called on the media to refrain from broadcasting all forms of entertainment on Saturday, according to Kazakh media.
The Fokker 100 aircraft, operated by Kazakh Airline Bek Air, broke through a concrete wall before hitting a two-storey residential building in Almaty.
Authorities have grounded other Fokker 100 planes in the country.
Investigators are focusing on whether the accident was caused by pilot error or a technical fault.
Most passengers aboard survived the crash, with Kazakhstan’s deputy health minister saying 67 people were injured and 47 were still being treated in hospitals in Almaty, in the country’s south.
Eight of those being treated are seriously injured, and several emergency operations were necessary, the minister said in comments broadcast on Kazakh television.
Four foreigners were on the plane – two from Ukraine and one each from China and Kyrgyzstan.
They all survived the accident, according to Kazakh authorities.
The plane was flying from Almaty to Nursultan, Kazakhstan’s capital city, which was formerly known as Astana.
It was the worst aircraft accident in years in the oil-rich ex-Soviet republic.
Most recently, more than 20 people died there in crashes in 2012 and 2013.