Bek Air plane crashes near Almaty, Kazakhstan, 15 killed
NUR-SULTAN. Dec 27 (Interfax) - A Bek Air passenger airplane crashed in the vicinity of a residential area shortly after takeoff from Almaty airport on Friday.
"A Bek Air passenger airplane on an Almaty-Nur Sultan flight crashed near a residential area shortly after takeoff," the Kazakh Interior Ministry's press service said.
Investigators are presently working at the scene, which has been cordoned off. As many as 976 people and 70 units of hardware as well as 33 ambulance crews are working at the site of the accident, it said.
City healthcare department chief Tleukhan Abildayev has put the death toll from the air crash at 15.
"In all, 15 people have died: 14 died on the spot and one in the hospital," Abildayev told reporters in Almaty on Friday.
"A total of 66 people were taken to hospitals. Of them, 50 were hospitalized, including 12 in serious condition," he said.