Kyrgyzstan observes day of mourning after 37 killed in Turkish cargo plane crash

BISHKEK

AP photo

Kyrgyzstan on Jan. 17 observed 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 the Jan. 16 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.

The company said it was not yet known what caused the crash. 

Kyrgyzstan had announced that the country of six million would observe a day of mourning on Jan. 17.

The bodies of 37 victims of the crash in the village of Dacha Suu had been identified at a local morgue by Jan. 17, including those of three of the aircraft’s four pilots, KyrgyzDeputy Prime Minister Mukhammetkaly Abulgaziev said on state television, according to AFP.   

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 hospitalized 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 on Jan. 16, without specifying how long it would take to decipher it.