On 13 January 2004 the aircraft operating the flight, a Yakovlev Yak-40 registered in Uzbekistan as UK-87985, collided with a radar station while landing at Tashkent, flipped over, caught fire and exploded, killing all 37 people on board.

Termez became a major hub for humanitarian aid into northern Afghanistan after the start of the War on Terror in 2001.

The area was in full darkness and the weather had deteriorated significantly, with the airport being shrouded in fog that limited visibility on the ground to 1300 meters.

As the plane approached the threshold of the runway, it was still 30 to 40 meters above ground level, when it should have been less than half that height and in landing configuration.

Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev and his aides had arrived at Tashkent airport and approached relatives of the victims and led them to a room.

[5] In his 2006 book, Murder in Samarkand, however, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, wrote that the scene of the crash and the bodies of the victims had been tampered with by Uzbek officials and that "there was never any attempt at a proper investigation".