BISHKEK -- A Kyrgyz court today sentenced the pilots of an aircraft that crashed near Bishkek last year to five years in prison, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
The court found crew commander Yury Goncharov and copilot Tim Vodolagin guilty for the deadly August 2008 crash of an airliner because they violated technical security requirements.
The Itek-Air Boeing 737 flying from Bishkek to Tehran crashed several minutes after takeoff into a field some nine kilometers from the Bishkek airport.
The plane's crew survived but 65 of its 90 passengers died.