U.S. Military Plane Crashes Near Kyrgyz-Kazakh Border

A U.S. military refuelling plane exploded and crashed on May 3 near the Kyrgyz village of Chaldovar at the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border and the fate of the crew was unknown. The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, used for in-flight refuelling, took off from the U.S. military transit center at Kyrgyzstan's international Manas airport near Bishkek, which U.S. forces maintain for operations in Afghanistan and crashed minutes after takeoff. Kyrgyz Emergency Ministry said that the black box from the plane had been found and search teams in Kyrgyzstan were continuing to look for three crew members. (Ulan Asanaliev, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service)