62 Spanish peacekeepers and 12 crew members died in the crash

ANKARA, May 26 (IslamoNline.net & News Agencies) –  Seventy-four people, mostly Spanish peacekeepers returning from an Afghanistan missionj, were killed when their YK-42 transport plane crashed Monday, May 26, in northeast Turkey, Turkish media reported.

Trabzon city governor Aslan Yildirim said the plane was carrying 62 passengers and 12 crew members when it went down in the hills near Trabzon, on the Black Sea, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Spanish defense ministry, quoted by Spanish television, said there were 62 Spanish soldiers aboard the plane, 41 from the army and 21 from the air force.

The plane was reported to have taken off from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and was headed for Zaragosa, Spain.

It had been due to refuel in Trabzon but twice missed its landing, according to Turkish television reports.

The officials said the pilot reported not being able to see the runway in the first two attempts, and the plane disappeared from radar screens at 4:45 a.m.

Heavy fog in the region might have contributed to the accident.

Images showed wreckage spread out over a wide area, still smoking from the crash, in the hills near Maska.

The Russian-made plane hit a mountain slope near the town of Macka, 30 miles south of the Black Sea port of Trabzon, private NTV television reported.

Military officials at the scene said there were no survivors, CNN-Turk television said.

Turkish soldiers retrieved more than 25 charred bodies from the wreckage, Yildirim told CNN-Turk television.

One witness, Sait Topcu, told CNN-Turk that the plane was exploding in flames when he reached the site.

"I had to wait 15-20 minutes for the explosions to end before I could get near to it," Topcu said. "I saw two charred bodies and called the para-military police."

Turkish soldiers and firemen were searching through the debris looking for the plane's flight recorders as a light rain fell on the area, still shrouded in fog.