Passengers 20 Injuries (non-fatal) 0 Aircraft type Antonov An-72-100 Site Shymkent Survivor 0 | Crew 7 Survivors 0 Date 25 December 2012 Fatalities 27 (all) Passenger count 20 | |
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Summary Crashed on descent short of runway in bad weather Operator Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan Similar 2012 Indonesian Air Force, Petropavlovsk‑Kamchatsky Air Flight 251, Allied Air Flight 111, 2012 Agni Air Dornier 228 crash, 2012 Sudan Antonov | ||
On 25 December 2012, an Antonov An-72-100 (registration UP-72859) operated by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, crashed about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Kazakh city of Shymkent, where the aircraft was preparing to land.
The aircraft had been flying from Kazakhstan's capital of Astana to Shymkent and was carrying 27 people – seven crew and twenty members of the Kazakh border patrol, including its leader, the acting Director of the Kazakhstan Border Guard Service, Colonel Turganbek Stambekov.
The accident occurred at about 19:00 local time (1300 UTC) as the aircraft was descending to land. According to local media, the aircraft had been flying at an altitude of about 800 metres (2,600 ft) when it suddenly crashed to the ground. Emergency crews were dispatched from Shymkent in response. However, the head of the local emergency services department stated that "the plane was destroyed by fire. Only fragments [were] left." Kazakhstan's National Security Committee issued a statement confirming that all 27 people on board had died in the crash, and also said that an investigation into the incident has begun.
The investigation commission found out that failure of the autopilot and radio altimeter combined with poor visibility, and the pilot failing to follow instruction to use the barometric altimeter caused the crash.