THESE are the first heartbreaking pictures of Sultan, aged nine, and Zhakshylyk, seven, both orphaned by yesterday's appalling air crash in Bishkek.

Sultan had left early to go to school in the next village – and when he returned, he found his entire family had been killed by a Turkish cargo plane which wiped out his home, and an entire section of his village in Kyrgyzstan.

Both parents, his brothers and his sister perished in the horror.

"Sultan left home at around 7am because his school is in the next village," said one account.

"He hadn't arrived when he got a phone call to go back home urgently."

When he arrived, his house was destroyed, completely gone, and his family all dead.

"Relatives have taken the boy now," said Deputy Prime Minister Muhammetkaliy Abulgaziev.

A picture shows him in shock and frightened as he is cared for by a woman believed to be a relative.

Zkakshylyk Sheraliev, seven, survived with concussion, bruises and shock when his house was hit, even though the rest of his family were killed, reported local media.

The brave boy explained from hospital: "A plane exploded. Then it destroyed all the houses.

"People died, they were just buried.

"Then came the police, then the ambulances. They took away dead people.

"The policemen looked at them. Our barn remained, but the roof of our neighbour house was carried away.

"I went to the neighbours in the morning, they gave me clothes, put me into an ambulance.

"Now I'm here. I was sleeping, then I ran away, not looking in the direction of my mummy."

The youngster has not yet been told his parents have died, but appeared to sense it.

Family friend Erkin Baetova – who is caring for him in hospital – said he explained how he was awoken by the crash.

"He told me: 'I opened my eyes, I was near the wall, do not remember anything, but I felt I was cold," she said.

"'I saw only the cellar – there were no walls left.' He went to another neighbour.

"He told that he was always afraid of the neighbour's dog, but this time he just went in the house and the dog did not even bark.

"They began to dress him, as he was just in underwear. It is so painful to talk about this."

She explained: "The boy doesn't know that his parents are dead. but he told to me: 'Don't wait for my parents', like he feels it deep in his heart.

"I don't know – or he saw something, or he just feels the grief.

"The only thing – he asks where is his grandmother….she is now at her home, and the parents' bodies were brought there.

"So I am looking after him. He asks me to take him home.

"Of course I will do everything so he will not be alone, but no one can replace his parents."

"He is another orphan from this terrible crash," said a weeping old lady in the village of Dacha-Suu. "Why did it happen here, to our people? Why us?"

A total of 38 people died in the crash – including 14 children – when a Boeing 747 cargo aircraft missed the runway and crashed into houses in the ex-Soviet republic in central Asia.

Fourteen children were among the dead.

Also killed was accountant Nargiza Kozhanaliyeva, 31, who was eight months pregnant.

Her husband was at work and survived, as did their five-year-old daughter who was being looked after by a grandmother in another village..

Two other victims were Aizhamal Orozbayeva, 27, and Albek Soltokenov, 28.

Mr Soltokenov was killed along with his younger sister Mariam, seven; mother Farida, 47; and father Anarbek, 56.

In one house, the wheels of the plane crashed into a bedroom where children were sleeping, reported Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

Other children died as they went to the outside toilets at the moment the 747 crashed.

Abulgaziev said today the death toll had risen to 38, as bodies were identified after being pulled from the debris.

They include the four flight crew, with the remains of the last of the crew were pulled from the wreckage today.

The plane appears to have aborted its attempt to land in thick fog.

The pilots sought to lift the jet and make a second attempt, but the aircraft clipped the roof of an air traffic control building and a perimeter fence before it crashed into the village.

It then ploughed 200 metres through the houses.

A dozen houses were destroyed completely with only foundations left, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. Many houses erupted in flames.

RELATED STORIES

One witness claimed there were flames on the plane before it hit the ground.

The first funerals are due to be held tomorrow.

Deputy interior minister Kursan Asanov said today there were no signs of any explosives at the scene of the crash.

One of the two pilots survived the disaster and was seen climbing out of the Boeing 747 debris, and "walking around the crash site", said Abulgaziev.

Looking dazed, he was taken to hospital by ambulance, where he died.

Earlier accounts indicated he died after the crash site, soon after the incident, or in the ambulance.

"He managed to climb out of the debris by himself", said the minister.

One black box has been retrieved from the rubble, said an emergencies' official in Bishkek.

The crew were named as commander pilot Ibrahim Gyurdzhan Dirandzhy, copilot Kazim Ondyul, an expert on loading Melih Aslan and flight technician Ihsan Koca.

Source: Read Full Article