Seventy-four people, mostly Spanish peacekeeping forces serving in Afghanistan, were killed when a Ukrainian plane crashed early Monday while trying to refuel in northwest Turkey, Turkish media reported. The plane was flying from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to Zaragoza, Spain, with a refueling stop in Trabzon, private NTV television reported, quoting unnamed Turkish aviation officials. The Russian made YAK-42 hit a mountain slope near the town of Macka, 30 miles south of the Black Sea port of Trabzon, NTV said. Spain's Defense Ministry said there were 62 Spanish military officials on the plane, 41 from the army and 21 from the air force. Turkish officials reported 12 crew members aboard. Military officials at the scene said there were no survivors, private CNN-Turk television reported. The plane apparently went down on its third attempt to land in thick fog at Trabzon airport, the aviation officials said, NTV reported. The officials said the pilot reported not being able to see the runway in the first two attempts, and the plane disappeared from radar screens at 4:45 a.m. Turkish soldiers retrieved more than 25 charred bodies from the wreckage, Gov. Aslan Yildirim of Trabzon told CNN-Turk television. One witness, Sait Topcu, told CNN-Turk that the plane was exploding in flames when he reached the site. "I had to wait 15-20 minutes for the explosions to end before I could get near to it," Topcu said. "I saw two charred bodies and called the para-military police." The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported that the army troops were from an engineers' regiment that had finished a four-month tour of duty. It also said that, until now, no Spanish troops had died in the 17 months they have participated in the Afghan peacekeeping mission. "Our sympathies are with the families of the persons involved in this plane crash," said Dutch Lt. Col. Paul Kolken, a peacekeeping spokesman in Kabul. Kolken said 62 Spanish peacekeepers left Kabul on Monday for Spain after completing their tours-of-duty in Afghanistan - the same number apparently killed in the plane crash. But he could not confirm the group was the same as the one that died in the plane crash in Turkey. "We fear these are the soldiers we've spent time with over the last several months. We are shocked," he said. U.S.-led coalition forces stormed into Afghanistan in the fall of 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks, ousting Afghanistan's ruling Taliban government and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. The United States remains the largest coalition force in Afghanistan, with about 8,000 soldiers stationed there. Separately, about 5,000 peacekeepers have been in Kabul since December 2001 to help control the war-shattered capital. Germany and the Netherlands took command of the international contingent, called the International Security Assistance Force, in February, taking over from Turkey. The troops from Spain had helped with mine-clearing, construction and other tasks. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Turkish firefighters at the crash site after a Ukrainian Yak-42 plane carrying 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan and 12 crew members crashed as it tried to land for refueling near Turkey's Black Sea city of Trabzon early Monday, May 26, 2003. There were no survivors. (AP Photo/Zafer Sel, Anatolia )