On 25 December 2012, an Antonov An-72-100 (registration UP-72859) operated by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, crashed about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Kazakh city of Shymkent, where the aircraft was preparing to land. The aircraft had been flying from Kazakhstan's capital of Astana to Shymkent and was carrying 27 people – seven crew and twenty members of the Kazakh border patrol, including its leader, the acting Director of the Kazakhstan Border Guard Service, Colonel Turganbek Stambekov.