Four people were killed and two others injured in Almaty, Kazakhstan, after a Soviet-designed Antonov An-26 plane crash-landed at the city’s airport. The aircraft belonged to the Kazakh National Security Committee (NSC).
The intelligence agency confirmed that its plane with six crew members aboard crashed during landing in Almaty at 5:22pm local time (11:22 GMT) on Saturday.
Four people were killed in the incident, while two others survived and were rushed to the hospital with serious injuries, the NSC said. The reasons for the crash are currently being investigated, it added.
Eyewitness footage purportedly filmed near the crash site showed smoke billowing in the distance. The aircraft, on its way from the capital Nur-Sultan, reportedly crashed when attempting to make a landing at the runway.
The origin of the crashed plane was not immediately confirmed, but some media reports have said it belongs to the Kazakh border guard service.
The An-26 normally requires a crew of five and has the capacity to fly 40 passengers. It has two turboprop engines, weighs 15 tons, and has a range of 1,100 km when fully loaded.
Credit: RT News