Kazakh Military Plane Crash in Almaty Kills 4

Emergency employees work at the side of the crashed Soviet-built An-26 two-engine turboprop at the airport of Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, Kazakhstan, on March 13, 2021. Vladimir Tretyakov/AP Photo

ALMATY—An An-26 military aircraft flying from the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, crashed while landing in Almaty on Saturday, killing four of six people on board, the Central Asian nation’s emergencies ministry said.

Russia’s Interfax news agency said citing a source that the plane belonged to Kazakhstan’s border guard service, part of the National Security Committee.

“According to preliminary data, four people have been killed, two people have been hospitalized... with injuries,” the emergencies ministry said in a statement.

Emergency employees work at the side of the crashed Soviet-built An-26 two-engine turboprop at the airport of Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, Kazakhstan, on March 13, 2021. Vladimir Tretyakov/AP Photo

Photographs from the site showed the plane turned over and on fire. Videos posted online also showed plumes of smoke rising from the crash site and visible from a nearby highway.

The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately clear.

The An-26 was designed in the 1960s and built in great numbers for both civilian and military use. Hundreds have remained in service in former Soviet nations and other countries around the world.