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All 21 on board Kazakh plane killed in crash
 
January 30, 2013
 
 

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AFP) - All 21 people on board a domestic flight in Kazakhstan operated by SCAT airline died Tuesday when their jet crashed on approach to Almaty airport in thick fog, the airline said."Twenty people were on board - five crew members and 15 passengers," the airline said in a statement quoted by the Interfax news agency."According to preliminary information there are no survivors," the statement added, saying the aircraft was a CRJ-200 made by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier.Officials said the victims included one child. The prosecutor general's office listed 21 people as having been on board, six of them crew members. Television footage of the crash site showed the wreckage in a snowy field a few kilometres short of the financial centre's main airport. A major highway linking the airport to nearby cities ran just a few hundred metres away.Interfax news agency said flights continued from Almaty airport even after the accident and that some jets flew directly over the CRJ-200's wreckage.The airline said the Bombardier had made one approach to the airport and was about to rise again for a second approach when it suddenly veered off course and plunged to the ground."On behalf of the Kazakh people and myself, I express the deepest sympathies to the relatives and loved ones of those who died," Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said a statement released by his office.SCAT said no further comment would be made until recovery workers had found and deciphered the "black box" flight data recorders. The Kazinform news agency reported that officials from both the interior and transportation ministries had travelled to the site of the crash.Interfax said the plane was produced in 2000 and had last undergone scheduled repairs in June 2011. It added that the jet was then certified to fly until its next scheduled maintenance in September this year. It was the second deadly aircraft accident to strike the fast-developing Central Asian nation in just a month. In December, 27 people were killed when their plane crashed in bad weather.  Aviation disasters remain a scourge across the former Soviet Union due to ageing hardware that often has not been replaced since before the fall of the Soviet regime.SCAT operated three CRJ-200s in its small modern fleet until Tuesday's accident. Each plane can carry up to 50 passengers and is operated for small and medium-haul flights by major Western airlines.Privately-owned SCAT was established in 1997 as the Special Cargo Air Transport company and has developed a solid safety reputation in Kazakhstan.

 
 
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