A Turkish cargo jet crashed near Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport on Monday, killing at least 37 people, most of them residents of a village struck by the Boeing 747 as it tried to land in dense fog, Kyrgyz officials said, quoted by Reuters and AFP.

According to the airport administration, the plane was supposed to make a stopover at Manas, near the capital city Bishkek, on its way from Hong Kong to Istanbul. It crashed when trying to land in poor visibility at 7:31 a.m.

Crushed cars, shattered homes and chunks of burnt plane wreckage littered the village as many residents were still at home.

The doomed plane plowed for a few hundred meters through the village, shattering into pieces and damaging some 15 buildings.

"The plane crashed into the houses, it killed entire families," one eyewitness told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There's nothing left of the houses, people were killed with their whole family, their children. Many people were sleeping."

A massive section of the aircraft's tail billowed smoke as rescuers worked in the village of Dacha-Suu, home to the majority of the dead.

Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev cancelled his visit to China to return to Bishkek, according to Kyrgyz media.

Authorities said the country will observe a day of mourning on Tuesday.

 

Source: AFP and Reuters