USAF KC-135 Tanker Crashes in Kyrgyzstan

Officials in Kyrgyzstan say a U.S. military plane has crashed about 160 kilometers west of the Manas air base that is used to support U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyz officials said Friday that the plane crashed and broke into three pieces in an area near the Central Asian country's border with Kazakhstan. There was no immediate word about casualties.

On Monday, a civilian cargo plane crashed shortly after taking off from the U.S.-run Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, killing all seven people on board.

A US military refueling plane has crashed in Kyrgyzstan, local officials said Friday according to dpa. The KC-135 tanker crashed minutes after taking off from the Manas US airbase outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Emergency teams were rushing to the scene near the village of Chaldybar, close to the border with Kazakhstan, the report said, quoting the Kyrgyz health ministry.

A local witness saw the plane explode in mid-air, the national news agency AKI press reported, quoting the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry. It was not immediately clear how many people were on board the plane.

The U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan, called the Transit Center at Manas, said it had no immediate information. The base, which is adjacent to the Manas International Airport outside the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, was established in late 2001 to support the international military campaign in Afghanistan.

The base has been the subject of a contentious dispute between the United States and its host nation. In 2009, the U.S. reached an agreement with the Kyrgyz government to use the base in return for $60 million a year.

But the lease runs out in June 2014 and the United States wants to keep the base beyond that point to aid in the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.


Source: VOA News (voanews.com) / MOSCOW – SPA News – 3 May 2013

Photo: The U.S. Air Force KC-135 Tanker Aircraft (Photo by USAF)


(3.05.2013)