Four people died and two more were injured after a military plane crashed while trying to land in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty, authorities said.

“According to preliminary data, four people died, and two injured were sent to the nearest hospital,” the emergencies ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The An-26 military aircraft was travelling to Almaty from the capital Nur-Sultan, the ministry in the Central Asian country said.

Communication with the aircraft ceased at around 17:20 pm local time (1120 GMT) “during the landing approach at the Almaty airport,” the airport said, adding that the aircraft crashed at the end of the runway.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

The Russian news agency Interfax reported that the plane belonged to Kazakhstan’s national security committee, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB that controls the national border service.

In December 2019, a dozen of around a hundred passengers died during a crash landing in similarly foggy conditions near the same airport.

The Bek Air carrier that operated the aircraft has not flown since and had its license revoked last year.

Source: Al Jazeera News

BDST: 2043 HRS, MAR 13, 2021
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