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US tanker plane 'crashes in Kyrgyzstan after take off' Fate of crew unknown as US plane crashes in Kyrgyzstan
(about 5 hours later)
A US military cargo plane has crashed after taking off from an airbase in Kyrgyzstan, local reports say. A US military refuelling plane has crashed in northern Kyrgyzstan.
The aircraft came down near the village of Chaldovar, about 160km (100 miles) west of the US Transit Center at Manas, the Kyrgyz emergencies ministry said. The US transit centre at Manas airport confirmed the KC-135 Stratotanker had come down. The status of its crew and cause of the crash were not known.
Officials said the plane had broken into three pieces but information about casualties has yet to be released. The plane disappeared off the radar near the village of Chaldovar, some 160km (100 miles) west of Manas and close to the border with Kazakhstan.
Seven crew members died when a US civilian cargo plane crashed at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan on Monday. Witnesses said they saw an explosion and heard a boom, and that wreckage was scattered across a wide area.
Witnesses of the Kyrgyzstan crash told local media that they had seen an explosion and heard a boom. "I was working with my father in the field, and I heard an explosion. When I looked up at the sky I saw the fire. When it was falling, the plane split into three pieces," resident Sherikbek Turusbekov was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
The US military uses the Manas airbase to maintain its operations in Afghanistan. One local news agency, 24.kg, quoted witnesses as saying the plane had hit a high-voltage power transmission line before it crashed, and quoted a local official as saying the pilots had ejected from the plane. Neither report has been confirmed.
The transport plane was carrying a cargo of fuel when it disappeared off the radar near Chaldovar, close to the border with Kazakhstan, the Reuters news agency reported. The wreckage is reported to be scattered across a wide area of mountainous terrain, which is hampering the rescue effort and investigation.
Rescue services went to the scene, a spokesman for the emergency situations ministry said. "Emergency services are on scene. The status of the crew is unknown," the US transit centre said in a statement. It did not specify how many people were on board, but the KC-135 is thought to carry around three crew members.
However, local media reported that fire engines were struggling to reach the wreckage due to the mountainous terrain. It is not clear where the plane was heading but the transit centre at Manas International Airport outside Bishkek is used by the US military to maintain its operations in Afghanistan.
Seven crew members died when a US civilian Boeing 747 cargo plane crashed at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan on Monday.