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Kyrgyzstan Jet Grazes U.S. Tanker Plane
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - A Kyrgyz passenger jet on Tuesday grazed a U.S. military tanker plane
while taking off from an airport near the Kyrgyz capital, setting the
American aircraft ablaze. Nobody was injured, officials said.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Kyrgyz Airlines' Tu-154 passenger jet carrying 52 passengers and nine crew en route to the southern city of Osh, then to Moscow hit the U.S. aircraft standing on the tarmac of the Manas airport that also houses a U.S. military air base, said airport spokeswoman Ainura Tentieva.
The U.S. base said in a brief statement that a KC-135 tanker plane caught fire at Manas, but its crew of three got out safely and nobody was injured. It gave no other details.
Kyrgyz authorities closed the airport for several hours, and an official investigation was under way.
The U.S. military has maintained the Manas air base since 2001 to back operations in nearby Afghanistan.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
