65 dead as 737 crashes in Kyrgyzstan capital

[Dave Noble]

A passenger plane with more than 90 people onboard crashed Sunday shortly after take-off from the airport in the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek, a civil aviation official said.

The Boeing-737 operated by Kyrgyz air company Itek Air was flying to Moscow when it went down not far from Manas airport in Bishkek, Alexander Aksyonov from the Kyrgyz civil aviation agency told a local radio station.

Article at Passenger plane crashes in Kyrgyzstan capital: official - Breaking News - World - Breaking News
and updated at http://news.smh.com.au/world/65-die-in-kyrgyzstan-plane-crash-health-ministry-20080825-41h4.html

Dave

 

[simongr]

Wowsers - another horrendous crash so soon. One has to wonder whether fleet average age has any impact on this. With the post-9/11 lull in aircraft orders is the global airline fleet a little older than it used to be?

 

[JohnK]

Another sad news story.

It would appear that most of these crashes are with LCCs or unknown airlines. It may suggest poor maintenance or even overworking the aircraft, similar to that crash near the Black Sea a few years ago, to get maximum usage.

We are lucky in Australia to have a very good record.

 

[serfty]

... It would appear that most of these crashes are with LCCs or unknown airlines. ...

Not sure about unknown; the one that crashed recently in Spain has large pieces of fuselage scattered about, the lettering of which originally formed the words:

"S T A R _ A L L I A N C E"
​

So maybe less known in Oz; and, perhaps, like putting "o n e w o r l d" on a JetStar aircraft; but still somthing that could quite easily happen here in Oz.