In Almaty, Nurlan Zhumasultanov, who is described as the de facto owner of the airline Bek Air, has been detained. He is suspected of involvement in the theft of an engine from a Fokker-100 aircraft, which was subsequently found to have been installed on the airline's crashed airliner.
WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE CASE
According to the Telegram channel "Kozachkov offside", on 9 September the Almaty Investigative Court authorised Zhumasultanov's arrest for a period of two months. Another defendant in the criminal case was placed under house arrest.
Zhumasultanov is charged with an offence under Part 4 of Article 188 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan ("Theft on an especially large scale"). This article carries a penalty of 5 to 10 years' imprisonment with confiscation of property.
HOW THE STOLEN ENGINE WAS FOUND
The criminal case was investigated after the disappearance of Fokker-100 engines that had been stored on the territory of Almaty airport. There were no witnesses or video recordings of the theft.
The breakthrough came with the air crash on 27 December 2019. A Fokker-100 aircraft of Bek Air, operating a flight from Almaty to Astana, was unable to lift off the ground, overran the runway and collided with a private house under construction. As a result, 12 people died, and one more person died later.
After the crash, it was established that one of the previously missing engines had been on the crashed aircraft. This was determined by its serial number.
In November 2025, the pilots Marat Muratbayev and Mirzhan Muldakulov were found guilty of the crash — they were convicted posthumously.
HOW THE INVESTIGATION REACHED THE OWNER OF BEK AIR
For several years, the disappearance of the engines was investigated by officers of the Transport Police Department, including with the use of international requests.
In 2026, the Main Transport Prosecutor's Office transferred the criminal proceedings to the National Security Committee (NSC). After that, Zhumasultanov was invited for questioning, declared a suspect and detained.
At the same time, the engine theft case is not directly connected to the investigation of the air crash itself.
