25 AUG 2008 _______________________________________ *Kyrgyz plane crash kills 65 *10 dead, including 5 Americans in Guatemala air crash *NTSB SENDS TEAM TO GUATEMALA *Spanish jet makes unscheduled landing *FAA fines United for Jackson Hole runway excursion *************************************** Kyrgyz plane crash kills 65 BISHKEK (Reuters) - Sixty-five people, including members of a teenage basketball team, died on Sunday when a Kyrgyz airliner crashed in a ball of flames shortly after take-off from the Central Asian state's main airport. "There are 25 survivors," Emergencies Minister Kamchibek Tashiyev told Reuters. He said there had been a total of 90 passengers and crew members aboard the Boeing 737-200. The plane, owned by local private carrier Itek-Air, was chartered by an Iranian company and bound for Tehran. A spokesman for the Manas airport has earlier said the plane reported a technical problem shortly after it had taken off at 2030 (10:30 a.m. EDT) and tried to return to the airport. Kyrgyz officials, including Prime Minister Igor Chudinov, rushed to the airport for an emergency meeting. Chudinov said afterwards that initial reports suggested the plane had suffered a sudden loss of cabin pressure, causing the pilot to request an emergency landing. A government official told reporters that 17 teenagers, a basketball team from a local sports school, were on board. He said seven of them survived and were in hospital. Police sealed off the crash site, close to the Manas airport runway. Part of the airport is used by the U.S. military as a base to supply the international force fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan. Airport employees who had seen the wreckage said the tail was the only part of the fuselage still intact. Transport Minister Nurlan Sulaimanov said the plane, built in 1979, was in good shape and had been inspected only two months ago. *************** 10 dead, including 5 Americans in Guatemala air crash GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) - Ten people, including five US citizens, were killed and four others were injured Sunday when a propeller aircraft crashed on a hill near El Puente, in eastern Guatemala, officials said. "The accident happened on a hill near this village when the TG-JES flight crashed for unknown reasons. According to preliminary information at least 14 people were aboard," said Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Carlos Salazar. Nine Americans and five Guatemalans were traveling aboard the aircraft, said Civil Aeronautics Agency director Juan Jose Carlos. Five of the fatalities were US citizens, the other five were Guatemalans, including the pilot and co-pilot, he added. The four survivors, all Americans, were flown to Guatemala City hospitals, Salazar said. The aircraft, belonging to Aeroruta Maya company, was flying from the Guatemala City suburb of La Aurora to El Estor, in northern Izabal department, when it crashed on a hill near El Puente, in eastern Zacapa department. Aeroruta Maya manager Richard Calloway said the pilot landed on a flat area but apparently lost control when the aircraft hit a pothole. "The airplane did not explode on landing, but later. Spilled fuel on the ground caught fire. Otherwise nobody would have survived," Calloway told reporters after he returned from the accident site. A preliminary report by the Civil Aeronautics Agency said the pilot reported some mechanical failure before radio contact broke off at 1540 GMT. Calloway said the airplane was a single-engine, Cessna Caravan 208 with a capacity for 12 passengers and two crew members. It was five or six years old and had all safety inspections up to date. One of the survivors, 19-year-old Sarah Jensen, told reporters her parents, brother and other Americans on the flight had just arrived in Guatemala from the US state of Wisconsin to take part in a US government-run humanitarian program in Guatemala. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iJFUX7TpJLE9oNSTGRW74j_IrkXw *************** NTSB SENDS TEAM TO GUATEMALA TO ASSIST WITH CESSNA AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION The National Transportation Safety Board will be sending a team of investigators to Cabanas, Zacapa, Guatemala, to assist in the investigation of today's accident in which a Cessna CE-208 turboprop (Guatemalan reg. unknown), crashed during a forced landing. The airplane was being operated by Aereo Ruta Maya airlines. Multiple injuries and fatalities have been reported. There are also reports that several U.S. citizens were on the flight. NTSB Acting Chairman Mark V. Rosenker has designated senior air safety investigator Luke Schiada as the U.S. Accredited Representative. The U.S. team will also include technical advisors from the FAA and the Cessna Aircraft Company. Media Contact: Keith Holloway, (202) 314-6100 ************** Spanish jet makes unscheduled landing Spanair MD-82 makes unscheduled landing at airport in southern Spain Incident comes just five days after Spanair MD-82 crashed at Madrid's airport Death toll from Wednesday's crash now 154 MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- A Spanair MD-82 jet made an unscheduled landing at an airport in southern Spain Sunday, just five days after another MD-82 operated by the airline crashed at Madrid's airport killing 154 people, Spain's airport authority said. The plane landed safely at Malaga, a major airport on the Spanish mainland's southern coast, after the pilot radioed air traffic controllers reporting a problem in flight, the officials said. The flight originated in Barcelona and was bound for Lanzarote on Spain's Canary Islands. Flight JKK 2565 was carrying 141 passengers who were taken to a Malaga hotel while the plane was being examined, according to Barcelona newspaper El Periodico. It appeared to be a charter, rather than a regularly scheduled flight, a Spanair telephone operator told CNN, referring the call to the company's charter line, which did not immediately answer. The death toll from Wednesday's crash rose to 154 Friday after one of 19 people who initially survived died in a hospital. That flight, which crashed on take-off from Madrid, was bound for Las Palmas, a major city on one of the Canary Islands. *************** FAA fines United for Jackson Hole runway excursion FAA has officially notified United Airlines it will fine the carrier $18,000 for violating regulations related to an Airbus A320 veering off the runway at Jackson Hole, Wyoming in February. A spokeswoman for the carrier confirms United has received the fine letter, and says no decision has been made about contesting the charges. The aircraft, operated by United's wholly-owned budget carrier Ted, came to rest 35m (116ft) past the end of the runway and 43m (140ft) right of the runway centerline. Investigators with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that wires in the landing gear brake configuration on the A320 were cross connected. Specifically, the board's examination of the left main landing gear brakes revealed the inboard and outboard wheel speed tachometer wires were crossed. Previously, NTSB has said United's maintenance records indicated both main landing gear units were replaced on the incident aircraft in early February. The board is also examining a similar United A320 incident that occurred in October 2007. Source: Air Transport Intelligence news ***************