AP, ALMATY, KazakhstanAn airplane with 98 people aboard yesterday crashed shortly after takeoff, killing at least 12 people, while 49 were hospitalized with injuries, Kazakh officials said. The Bek Air aircraft hit a concrete fence and a two-story building after takeoff from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital. Local authorities had earlier put the death toll at 15, but the Kazakh Ministry of the Interior later revised the figure downward, without explaining. The company manufacturing the aircraft went bankrupt in 1996 and the production of the Fokker-100 stopped the following year. All Bek Air and Fokker-100 flights in Kazakhstan were suspended pending an investigation of the crash, authorities said.

Source: Taipei Times December 27, 2019 15:56 UTC