Rescuers work at the airplane crash site in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Dec. 27, 2019. At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured after a plane of Kazakh airline Bek Air with 100 people on board crashed early Friday near the country's biggest city of Almaty, local authorities said. (Kazakh Telegraph Agency/Handout via Xinhua)
NUR-SULTAN, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured after a plane of Kazakh airline Bek Air with 100 people on board crashed early Friday near the country's biggest city of Almaty, local authorities said.
"I express my deepest condolences to the families and friends of the deceased citizens when the plane crashed near Almaty this morning," Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev tweeted. "All those guilty will be severely punished in accordance with the law."
According to a statement by the Health Ministry of Kazakhstan, 12 people were killed and around 50 others hospitalized with injuries, ten of whom were in critical conditions.
Local authorities had earlier put the death toll at 15, but the ministry later revised the figure downward, without explaining.
According to the statement, eight of the victims died at the scene, two died while receiving medical treatment at the airport and two at the hospital.
The plane was en route from Almaty to the capital city of Nur-Sultan. It took off at 7:05 a.m. local time (0105 GMT) and lost altitude at 7:22 a.m. (0122 GMT), the airport said.
The Bek Air Z9-2100 had 95 passengers and five crew members on board. It broke through a concrete fence before colliding with a two-storey building, but did not catch fire.
The aircraft, identified as a Fokker-100, a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner, was reportedly 23 years old and most recently certified to operate in May. The company manufacturing the aircraft went bankrupt in 1996 and the production of the Fokker-100 stopped the following year.
Tokayev declared Dec. 28 a national day of mourning, and ordered Prime Minister Askar Mamin to form a commission to investigate the crash.
