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Investigators Probe into Crash of Boeing-737 of Kyrgyz Fleet
The crash of Boeing-737, Bishkek-Teheran flight, killed 65. Twenty five survived the accident, including the crew. A special commission probes into all leads, the Kyrgyz authorities have excluded the chance of a terror attack but provided no explanation yet. The crash shows the state of Kyrgyz air fleet, the analysts speculate.
There were 90 aboard Boeing 737, including 83 passengers, the crew of six and a representative of Iran’s Asseman Air that charted the flight from Kyrgyz Itek-Air. The jet took off at 8:40 p.m., local time, and was at the altitude of 3,600 meters when the depressurization lamp turned on in the cockpit.
The pilots reported to traffic controllers and headed for landing but only to crash on the third of four turns some 10 kilometers from Manas airport. Having left the furrow of 300 meters, the jet stumbled on the irrigation ditch, broke into pieces and went on fire.
The rescue operation lasted all night; 25 survived the crash, including the crew and the representative of Iran’s airlines, but the condition of eight of them is grave.
Today is the mourning day in Kyrgyzstan. It wasn’t the engine failure, said captain Yuri Goncharov, who took the most active part in the rescue operation. The problem was the loss of control over the jet, he explained.
People in Itek-Air that owned the jet supposed it was the terror act. “All our jets flying to Russia and to Osh-city are in the excellent technical condition. And here is the jet, full of passengers, most of them are the Iranians…,” they specified.
Regardless, the crash triggered new disputes about the technical state of Kyrgyz aircraft – the crashes are too frequent in that country of Asia, and the European Commission has been adding all Kyrgyz airlines to the black list for a few years already.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 26, 2008
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