The World : Airliner Crashes in Bulgaria; 23 Killed

A Balkan Airlines passenger jet crashed and burned shortly after takeoff from Sofia airport, killing at least 23 of the 37 people aboard, Bulgaria’s official BTA news agency said. The Soviet-built Yak-40 was carrying 33 passengers and four crew members on a domestic flight from the capital to the Black Sea resort of Varna when it burst into flames and crashed in a field near the airport, the Bulgarian airline said. Fourteen people aboard the plane were hospitalized, it said. An airport official said that one Russian and one Yugoslav were killed but that the rest of the fatalities were Bulgarians.