Kazakhstan unveils results of investigations into crash of Bek Air’s aircraft

As the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development reported, Kazakhstani authorities have finished the investigation into the plane crash that occurred on December 27, 2019.

The final report on the results of the investigation was coordinated with the Dutch Safety Board and the Interstate Aviation Committee.

«Our commission found out that the incident with Bek Air airline’s plane resulted from asymmetrical damage to the plane’s wings bearing capacity during its attempt to take off. As a result, the plane crashed a moment after its takeoff; under its own inertia the plane kept moving and hit a building 9-10 meters behind the airport’s fence,» the agency said.

The commission believes that the reason for losing wings bearing capacity was caused by ground icing.

The Bek Air airline’s plane crashed just behind the fence of the Almaty International Airport in December 2019. The plane carried 93 passengers and five crew members. In the incident twelve people died including the aircraft commander; 67 others were injured.

In January 2020, the Aviation Administration of Kazakhstan said that the Bek Air airline failed to meet all the safety requirements. The company had not provided proper control over the technical condition of the aircraft. Often the airline specialists installed used plane components in order to save money on technical maintenance, which caused a mess with the registration of planes’ operation hours, according to the authorities. 

In June 2021, Beibut Atamkulov, the minister of industry and infrastructure development at the time, said that the investigation stalled because of limitations linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.