Associated Press
January 13

A domestic airliner crashed today on approach to the airport in Uzbekistan's capital, killing 37 people, airport employees and news reports said.

Officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Employees at Tashkent Airport, speaking on condition they not be identified, said the plane that went down was an Uzbekistan Airlines Yakovlev-40 en route from Termez in the country's south.

Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev arrived at the airport and approached a group of people waiting for that flight's arrival and led them into a nearby room. Later, a woman ran out of the room, crying "Oh, my beloved!"

Mirziyayev made no comments.

One airport employee said 32 passengers and five crew members were aboard the plane. He said no one was believed to have survived.

The ITAR-Tass news agency, citing unnamed Interior Ministry officials, said 37 people died in the crash. It reported the plane was an Antonov-24, a twin-engine turboprop; the Yak-40 is a commuter jet.

The plane crashed on approach to the airport in heavy fog. The crash area was sealed off to the public, but one airport worker said the plane appeared to have hit a stanchion of approach lights and flipped over, hitting the outside of a wall surrounding the landing area.

The area adjacent to the landing area is a mixture of industrial buildings and open spaces. It was not clear whether any buildings were damaged in the crash.

Several hours after the crash, the airport announced it was closed due to bad weather and that arriving flights were being diverted to Samarkand, about 300 kilometres to the southwest.

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