It was reported on Friday, December 27, that a Bek Air aircraft – identified as a Fokker-100, a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner – crashed when it lost altitude just after it had taken off at 7:22 a.m. from Almaty International Airport, in Kazakhstan. Of the 93 passengers and five crew on board, 12 were killed, while a further 49 were hospitalized, many with very serious injuries.
According to Roman Skylar, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister, the aircraft’s tail hit the runway twice during take-off. “A commission … will establish whether this was pilot error or technical issues. The runway was in an ideal condition,” he added. The plane was flying from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital, to Nur-Sultan, the country’s capital formally known as Astana. “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.
Tokayev has also ordered an audit of all Kazakh airlines. According to the Kazakh government, the Fokker 100 was built in 1996, while its most recent flight certificate was issued in May 2019.
