BISHKEK. Dec 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The collision of the Kyrgyz TU-154 passenger airplane with the U.S. KC-135R aerial refueller at the Manas airport on September 26 was an accident, and not a result of intentional actions, says the report of the U.S. Air Force commission, which investigated the incident.
According to the press release of the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan received by Interfax on Thursday, the Commission set up by the Air Mobile Command, which investigated the crash, has found that the cause of the accident was that the air traffic control operator from Kyrgyzaeronavigatsiya allowed a takeoff of a civil airliner without having checked whether the KC-135R had cleared the runway.
The document says that apart from the actions of the air traffic control operator, the commission found a number of other factors which led to the incident, including the KC-135R crew, inconsistencies in written instructions of the airport, and the communications air traffic control tower operator who was hired by the U.S. government to facilitate interaction between the tower and U.S. air crews.
U.S. Embassy officials said that the report of the commission investigating the incident was submitted to the Kyrgyz government on December 20 by commander of the U.S. Central Command Air Forces Harry North, U.S. Ambassador Mary Yovanovich and U.S. Manas Air Base commander Scott Reese.