Reuters Article: Thirty-one die in Iraq plane crash-Turkish official

Thirty-one die in Iraq plane crash-Turkish official
Tuesday January 9, 06:46 PM

ANKARA (Reuters) - Thirty-one people were killed on Tuesday when their chartered plane crashed in Iraq while trying to land in foggy conditions, Turkish officials said.

The officials made no suggestion of hostile fire, although an Iraqi rebel group later claimed it had shot down the plane.

The Moldovan Antonov-26, which took off from the Turkish city of Adana early on Tuesday, was carrying about 35 people including 30 construction workers, the officials said.

"The plane came down at about midday Turkish time (1000 GMT) some 2.5 km (1.5 miles) to the northwest of Balad," a Foreign Ministry official told Reuters. He put the death toll at 31 and said one person was injured and three were missing.

Adana's governor Cahit Kirac told CNN Turk television that the plane was carrying 29 Turks, one American and a crew comprising one Russian, one Ukrainian and three Moldovans.

Balad is the main U.S. military logistics hub in Iraq, about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Baghdad. Turkish media initially reported that the crash occurred in Baghdad.

The plane belonged to Moldova's Aerian Tur Airlines and the workers on board were from the Turkish construction company Kulak, the Foreign Ministry official said.

The U.S. military, which controls Iraqi air space, declined to comment.

In 2005, hostile fire brought down a British military transport plane in the same area, killing all on board.

Residents of Balad said that hours after the crash leaflets were distributed in the town saying a Sunni Arab insurgent group, the Islamic Army, had shot down the plane with a missile. Similar claims follow most air crashes in Iraq.

(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad)