The Tajik Ministry of Transport has grounded Asia Airways (Dushanbe) following the crash of one of its An-12B freighters in Juba earlier this week. EY-406 (cn 01347704) had just taken off from the South Sudanese capital Juba en-route for Paloich in the north when it impacted terrain just short of the White Nile river. Of the forty-three passengers and crew on-board only one - a young boy - survived.
Antonov Design Bureau (Gostomel) has since issued a strongly-worded statement in which it uncategorically states that the 41 year-old quadprop was not airworthy at the time of its crash as it had allegedly missed critical maintenance checks
"The fact is that maintenance checks specified by the Operations manual, including those on service life extension and works to provide further safe operation [of the aircraft], had not been carried out in time," the manufacturer said.
As such, a ministry spokesman told Tajik news wire Asia Plus that a thorough review of Asia Airways' operations and fleet will now be conducted. The carrier reportedly operates three other An-12s, an An-26, and one Il-76.
At the time of the crash, the aircraft had been sub-contracted to Sharjah-based firm ALA International which in turn had chartered it out to local South Sudanese logistics outfit Allied Services Ltd.
