All 75 on board die in Turkey plane crash
Turkish soldiers and firemen, shrouded in fog, searched through the debris looking for bodies and the plane’s flight recorders.
All 75 people on board the plane, which crashed in north-east Turkey, were killed.
Witnesses said they saw a ball of fire in the sky as they headed to the mosque for morning prayers.
“I heard the noise of an engine, at first I thought it was a helicopter. Then I saw it was a plane on fire,” Adil Yilmaz said.
Minutes later, he heard two loud explosions, he said.
The plane was flying from the Afghan capital Kabul to Zaragoza in Spain, with a refuelling stop in the Black Sea port of Trabzon.
It had also stopped in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, but as it approached Trabzon, the Russian-made YAK-42D slammed into a mountainside near the town of Macka, in the midst of heavy fog.
The crash was Spain’s worst-ever military accident.
The aircraft, which belonged to Ukrainian-Mediterranean Airlines, was carrying 62 Spanish peacekeepers, 12 Ukrainian crew members and a Belarussian flight manager, all of whom were killed.
The peacekeepers included 41 army and 21 air force personnel, Spain’s Defence Ministry said.
The plane, which apparently carried ammunition belonging to the Spanish soldiers, burst into flames and exploded upon impact.
Turkish soldiers saw unexploded hand grenades among the wreckage and evacuated the rescue site, fearing further explosions.
The Transportation Ministry said radio contact between the tower and the pilot was cut off shortly before the news of the crash reached the authorities.
Turkish soldiers retrieved more than 30 charred bodies from the wreckage, said Deputy Governor Nihat Nalbant of Trabzon.
He denied earlier reports that the plane’s black box flight recorder had been located.
If found, the flight recorder could indicate if there were any failures in the aircraft’s operations or its systems.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
