Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Wednesday held a meeting with the heads of state and law enforcement bodies over the deadly crash of a military transport plane this week, the president's website said.

The president noted that the plane carrying frontier guards crashed at 18.55 on December 25 near the city of Shymkent.

According to preliminary data, all the people on board were killed.

"Seven members of the crew and 20 officers died. An ad hoc committee has been established over the incident, the Prosecutor-General's Office has opened a criminal case, and investigation is underway," Nazarbayev said, expressing his condolences to the relatives and friends of the victims.

The Kazakh president underscored the need to thoroughly investigate all the circumstances of the plane crash.

"After decoding the "black box", we will know more about the circumstances of the tragedy," he said. "According to preliminary data, we can say that there is no ill-intentioned external influence. I suppose that there was a confluence of tragic circumstances," Nazarbayev said.

"At that time there were very bad weather conditions near Shymkent, but despite this, the crew went ahead and began landing. About 40 kilometers away from the city the plane disappeared from radar screens. The pilot was experienced, the plane was in proper condition and had undergone routine maintenance. Nonetheless, all the circumstances of the incident will be ultimately known when we conduct a comprehensive investigation of the causes of the crash," the president said.

Nazarbayev stressed the need to take measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents and instructed the government to provide all the required assistance to the families of the tragedy victims.

First Deputy Chairman of the National Security Committee (NSC) Vladimir Zhumakanov said that the head of the NSC is at the scene and is taking the necessary measures. He has met with relatives of the victims.

Acting officers have been appointed to the positions of the officers killed in the crash.

Zhumakanov said further, "Currently, there are no signals indicating that it was a malicious act. Overall, the border service is running according to plan, and the state border is under good protection."

Defense Minister Adilbek Dzhaksybekov said that preliminary investigation confirms that humidity was 97% in the airport area, there was fog, temperature was negative one degree, and there could have been icing [of the runway]. "There are also a number of other facts that point to the bad weather conditions that prevent normal landing of the plane," Dzhaksybekov said.

President Nazabayev declared December 27, 2012 as national mourning day.