This archive report was first published on 27 December 2019.
On December 27, 2019, a devastating plane crash occurred in Kazakhstan, claiming the lives of at least nine people.
The crash involved a Fokker 100 plane, which departed from Almaty International Airport and was bound for Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital. The plane lost altitude and crashed into a two-story building in a residential area near the airport, killing six children among the dead.
According to airport officials, there were 95 passengers and five crew members on board the plane. Some of the passengers survived the crash.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan expressed his condolences to the victims and announced that a government commission headed by the country's prime minister, Askar Mamin, would investigate the crash.
"All the guilty will be punished severely in accordance with the law," Mr. Tokayev said on Twitter.
The Fokker 100, a Dutch-made plane, has been in production since the 1980s and has been used by many airlines around the world. However, production on the plane ceased in 1997, after its Dutch maker went into bankruptcy in 1996. Despite this, more than 100 Fokker 100 planes are still active, mostly in Australia and Iran.
