All five on board survived the emergency landing and escaped before the flying doctor aircraft was engulfed in smoke and flames. A shocking video from the earlier horrific An-2 crash in Russia shows the aircraft falling like a stone soon after takeoff. The crashes are bound to raise questions over the safety of the ‘workhorse’ plane still in wide use despite first going into service under Stalin shortly after the end of World War Two in 1947.
In the latest incident the Soviet-era biplane’s single engine caught fire during a flight and the pilot made an emergency landing one mile short of Ust-Kamenogorsk.
The pilot had turned back after experiencing engine problems.
Footage and pictures from the scene shows black smoke pouring from the wreckage moments after the passengers and crew escaped.
The Kazakhstan emergencies committee reported: “There were five people on board, three crew members and two passengers.
“There were no casualties.”
A medical rescue team were en route to visit a patient at Aksuat.
In the Russian crash last week, the An-2 was carrying a dozen gold miners and two crew from Magadan.
A male passenger screams in the video as the plane suddenly bellyflops into a snowfield from a height of around 170 feet soon after takeoff.
Before takeoff one passenger was quoted saying: “This is the ‘devil plane’ we are going to fly in.
“It looks dead. It is very dangerous to fly.”
REN TV citing its own sources reported that there was a suspicion the plane was “overloaded”.
The An-2 model has been flying for 73 years and is still in widespread use especially in the ex-USSR despite production ending in 2001.
The crashed Russian plane was built in 1985. The age of the stricken Kazakh aircraft was not given.
The An-2 has suffered more than 620 accidents with the loss of 774 lives.