65 killed in Kyrgyz plane crash

Itek Air is banned from entering European Union air space as part of a blanket ban on all Kyrgyz airlines from flying to the EU because of safety fears.

Officials said 11 Iranians survived, but the remaining foreigners died.

“The remaining foreigners on board the Boeing died. Their names are being checked as several corpses were received at the morgue without documentation,” the prime minister’s office said.

The crash, just 10 minutes after the plane took off, was the worst in the former Soviet republic in Central Asia since it gained independence.

Kyrgyz reporters on the scene said body parts were strewn across a large area surrounding the plane wreckage.

“Everywhere around the site there were body parts of the unfortunate passengers. You could hear screams and moans. There was a horrible stench of burning bodies,” a witness told a local radio station.

“Our three telephones were ringing incessantly, people were crying, could not speak, yelled at us, demanding to know how we allowed such a tragedy. There were children there, young athletes, and their parents’ grief was overwhelming,” an airport information service employee told AFP.

There were heartbreaking scenes at the city morgue, an official there said.