Tag Archives: emergency

Azerbaijani cargo plane crashes

MAY 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – An Antonov-12 cargo plane operated by Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines crashed on take-off at Dwyer airport in south Afghanistan on Wednesday evening, media reported. Seven of the nine crew members were killed in the crash. The authorities later identified the dead as the Uzbek pilot, five Azerbaijani crew members and one Ukrainian technician. Two Ukrainians survived.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 281, published on May 20 2016)

Turkmenistan returns body

APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan returned the body of one of the workers from an Azerbaijani oil rig who had been swept away in a storm in December. Around three dozen people were killed when the storm smashed into oil rigs in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in the world’s worst off-shore oil rig accident for two decades. Many of the bodies have been carried by currents across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Oil Tanker catches fire in Azerbaijan-Turkmen Caspian Sea sector

APRIL 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A crew member died after a Russian oil tanker caught fire in the southern section of the Caspian Sea, between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Coastal guards from the three littoral countries joined forces to extinguish the fire and rescue the rest of the crew. The tanker was not carrying oil at the time of the accident. Last December, a fire at offshore oil and gas platforms killed more than 30 Azerbaijani workers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 278, published on April 29 2016)

Fire destroys Kazakhstan’s Abu Dhabi Plaza

APRIL 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A fire at the Abu Dhabi Plaza, an 88- storey tower being built in central Astana, destroyed five of its floors. No-one was injured. Fires have hit the building several times this year. UAE investors are funding the $1.6b tower which was expected to be finished this year and will be the tallest in Central Asia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Kazakh plane crash-lands

MARCH 30 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Bek Air Fokker plane carrying 116 passengers crash-landed at Astana airport, raising safety and security concerns for Kazakh aviation. Pilot Dmitri Rodin was hailed a hero after he performed a near textbook crash-landing after his front landing gear failed to engage as he approached Astana airport. Everybody aboard emerged unscathed from the crash.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 274, published on April 1 2016)

Short-circuit triggers Tbilisi cathedral fire

MARCH 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A short-circuit appears to have triggered a large fire at the Sameba cathedral in Georgia’s capital. The fire spread across 1,200 square metres and it took several hours for the Tbilisi fire department to extinguish it. The Sameba cathedral is the world’s third-tallest Eastern Orthodox church. No-one was reported as injured.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 273, published on March 25 2016)

Tajik town renames itself Rakhmonabod after Pres. Rakhmon

MARCH 3 2016, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s senate approved a request from a small town in the east of the country to be renamed Rakhmonabod, after President Emomali Rakhmon, as a thank you for his prompt aid after a flood in 2015. Villagers of Pitovdasht, in the mountainous Gorno-Badakhsan region, officially applied for the name change last September.

Residents said they wanted this to be a symbol of gratitude for Mr Rakhmon, president of Tajikistan since the mid-1990s, who fulfilled his promise of building 82 new homes after the flooding.

In July 2015, the region was hit hard by floods after glaciers melted and over 10,000 people had to be resettled.

Observers have said the town’s name change lies somewhere between genuine gratitude and the president’s cult of personality.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)

Helicopter crash kills 5 in southern Kazakhstan

JAN. 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A helicopter carrying a sick child to hospital crashed in a canyon in southern Kazakhstan killing all five people aboard, media reported quoting the Kazakh emergency services. It was unclear what caused the crash. Kazakhstan has a poor safety record for helicopters. A few days earlier another two-person helicopter had also crashed in southern Kazakhstan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Mine worker dies in Kyrgyzstan

JAN. 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A man working at the Centerra Gold-owned Kumtor gold mine in Kyrgyzstan died in an accident. Neither Centerra Gold nor the Kyrgyz government, which owns a stake in the company, have commented on the accident. The Kumtor gold mine is the single biggest economic asset in Kyrgyzstan and is the focus of an ownership row.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 265, published on Jan. 29 2016)

Turkmenistan retrieves another oilman body

JAN. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Turkmen authorities retrieved the body of another missing Azerbaijani oil worker in the Caspian Sea. A storm hit an oil field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea shortly before Christmas, triggering a fire that killed 33 people. It was the worst offshore oil rig accident since Piper Alpha, in the North Sea, in 1988. Some of the bodies have been found in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 263, published on Jan. 15 2016)