Uzbekistan plane crash kills 37
AFP, Tashkent
All 37 people aboard a Soviet-built Uzbek passenger plane, including the nation's top UN official, died when the aircraft crashed and burst into flames as it landed in thick fog in the capital of the Central Asian country, officials said.Uzbekistan's public prosecutor, Rashitjon Kadirov, said the landing gear on the Yak-40 aircraft had failed to deploy. He said there were no indications that the crash resulted from terrorism, but a full investigation would be held. The 28-year-old plane, which was almost at the end of its working life, crashed and burst into flames approaching Tashkent airport on a flight from the southern city of Termez, near Uzbekistan's border with Afghanistan, at 19:27pm (1427 GMT) on Tuesday, Kadirov said. After its undercarriage failed to deploy, it smashed into a concrete barrier, burst into flames and then fell into a river, he said. Among those who died was the UN's resident coordinator in Uzbekistan, Richard Conroy, 56, and the head of the Tashkent office of the Washington-based humanitarian organisation World Concern, Richard Penner. A foreign ministry spokesman said that Penner was a Canadian citizen and not, as officials had earlier indicated, from the United States. Two Afghan businessmen were also among the dead. A total of five crew members and 32 passengers, including one child, died in the crash. There were no survivors, Kadirov said.
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