Safety

A Bombardier Challenger 604 business jet has crashed while taking off from Almaty in Kazakhstan, according to local reports, killing the single passenger and injuring the three crewmembers.

The privately owned German aircraft was en route from Hannover to Hong Kong and landed at Almaty for refuelling. While taking off on 26 December, the aircraft veered off the runway and exploded, the reports say.

On the same day, a privately owned Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter crashed in central Belgium, killing all five people on board. The helicopter came down in a field near Merchtem, northwest of Brussels.

Local reports quote an eyewitness as saying the helicopter appeared collide with power cables before crashing.

A Hawker 1000 owned by Malaysian company Sorem SDT, meanwhile, was damaged on landing at Ankara Esenboga airport in Turkey on 21 December. No-one was injured.

The US-registered aircraft was en route from London Luton to Delhi, India with seven passengers and two crew and made a technical stop at Ankara. On take-off, the aircraft overran the runway and hit a taxiway sign.

This story is currently being discussed on AirSpace.