UZBEKISTAN: A Soviet-built Yak-40 airliner crashed last night as it approached the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, killing 37 people and scattering body parts over a wide area near the city's airport.
A statement issued by the state UzA news agency said all on board, 32 passengers and five crew, were killed as the plane came down on final approach on a domestic flight from Termez, on the Central Asian state's border with Afghanistan.
"At 7.27 p.m. local time (2.27 p.m. Irish time), a Yak-40 aircraft crashed while landing at Tashkent airport," the statement said. An officer at the site had earlier said more than 30 people were on board. "The plane crashed on the runway and exploded," he said.
A Reuters correspondent saw emergency workers carrying body parts away from the scene in large bags several hours after the plane crashed.
Residents said the airport had been covered in thick fog at the time of the accident.
President Islam Karimov met rescue workers soon after the crash at the site, sealed off by police cordons.
Russia's Interfax news agencies, quoting unidentified sources, said staff members of international organisations, including the United Nations, had been on board, but there was no immediate confirmation.
Officials gave no indication of what caused the crash. At least one news report ruled out any suggestion of foul play.
The Yak-40, which normally carries up to 32 passengers, commonly operates on short runs in the former Soviet republics, but is also often used as an executive jet.
There has been considerable concern about the safety of Soviet-built aircraft, although standards of maintenance have improved since the early post-communist years.
In the most serious crash involving a Soviet-built aircraft in recent months, 276 people died aboard an Ilyushin-76 that came down in February 2003 on a mountain in south-eastern Iran.
- (Reuters)