37 killed as Turkish cargo plane crashes into village near Kyrgyzstan airport

A Turkish cargo plane has crashed in a residential area near the main airport in Kyrgyzstan, destroying half a village and killing at least 37 people in the aircraft and on the ground, officials said.

The Boeing 747 crashed at 7.40am local time while approaching Manas airport, south of the capital Bishkek, in the Central Asian nation, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry.

Footage from the scene showed the plane’s nose stuck inside a brick house and large chunks of debris scattered around.

A dozen body bags were laid out in the yard of one home. A car parked nearby was mangled in the crash, and a fridge lay open.

The bodies of 15 victims, including five children, all of them Kyrgyz citizens, had been identified by Monday evening, the Kyrgyz government said.

Another 15 people, including six children, were taken to hospital, according to the health ministry.

Kyrgyz emergency situations minister Kubatbek Boronov said 23 out of the 43 houses in the village had been destroyed. Several dozen homes were near the fence surrounding the runway.

The plane, which had departed from Hong Kong, belonged to the Istanbul-based cargo company ACT Airlines, which said the dead included the plane’s four Turkish crew members: two pilots, a freight expert and a flight technician.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Mr Boronov told reporters that it was foggy at Manas when the plane came down but weather conditions were not critical.

One of the plane’s two flight recorders was recovered at the scene, according to the Kyrgyz prime minister’s office.