Kazakhstan's Almaty Court Holds Deceased Pilots Responsible for 2019 Bek Air Crash

The Turksib District Court in Kazakhstan's Almaty city has issued its ruling on the December 2019 Bek Air plane crash, which left 12 people dead and 69 injured.

The court determined that the deceased pilots, Marat Muratbayev and Meirzhan Moldakulov, were responsible for the accident near Almaty Airport, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.

Presiding Judge Dastan Almagambetov stated that the pilots were guilty of “violating aviation safety rules, resulting in the accidental death of two or more people,” but no criminal punishment was assigned due to the deaths of the pilots.

The court also confirmed that Bek Air’s property will remain under seizure until civil claims from victims are fully resolved. Compensation for each case will be assessed through civil court proceedings. The total claims filed so far amount to 4.8 billion tenge ($9.140 million).