Three babies survive horror jet crash that killed 12
‘A crash and terrible roar’
THREE babies miraculously survived when a passenger jet crashed just after take-off and slammed into a two-storey building yesterday.
At least 12 other passengers and crew died in the tragedy, with 47 of the 98 aboard taken to hospital.
The jet, a Fokker-100, scraped the runway at Almaty in Kazakhstan as it struggled to take off, its tail lurching from side to side, before it began losing height. The captain, Murat Muratbayev, 58, died in hospital after being pulled from the wreck.
The Bek Air plane was on an early morning domestic flight from Almaty to the country’s capital Nur-Sultan. There was a ‘strong shake’ before the Fokker slammed into a concrete fence and building. Terrified survivors appealed on social media for rescuers to help them. ‘It was like in a movie – rattling, screaming,’ said one passenger. ‘I was in such a state. I thought it was the end, then there was a crash and a terrible roar.’
Another woman was one of several to beg on social media for help. ‘People plead for ambulances and they don’t come,’ she posted. Around her were ‘many dead bodies’.
Policeman Zhaksylyk Sultanov told how he carried one of the babies from its mother’s arms and out of the stricken plane. He said: ‘I saw a woman had open legs fractures, probably suffering from shock.
‘On her chest was a boy. I told her I would take him and pass him to an ambulance. She blinked as if she approved and then began to cry.’
Two girls, one of four months and one a year, were also taken to safety. The cause of the crash is not yet clear. The country’s president KassymJomart Tokayev said victims’ families would be compensated and those responsible ‘severely punished’.