BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Kyrgyzstan
on Tuesday was observing a day of mourning as it recovered the bodies of the dozens of people killed when a Turkish cargo plane crashed into a village outside the capital a day ago.
Authorities in the Central Asian country have blamed pilot error for
Monday’s crash of a cargo plane operated by ACT Airlines, a Turkish cargo
carrier, as it was attempting to land in foggy conditions at the Manas airport in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan had announced that the country of six million would
observe a day of mourning on Tuesday.
The bodies of 37 victims of the crash in the village of Dacha Suu had
been identified at a local morgue by Tuesday, including those of three of the aircraft’s four pilots, Deputy Prime Minister Mukhammetkaly Abulgaziev said on state television.
Additional body fragments and the body of the fourth pilot were later
found, authorities said, suggesting that the death toll could continue to rise.
The health ministry said in a statement that 13 people remained
hospitalised with injuries sustained in the crash, which happened as the plane was travelling from Hong Kong to Istanbul via Bishkek.
One of the black boxes of the Boeing 747-400 was recovered from the
crash site, the government said Monday without specifying how long it would take to decipher it.