BISHKEK, November 14 (RIA Novosti) - American pilots are to blame for a September incident in which a Kyrgyz airliner collided on takeoff with a U.S. military aircraft at the Central Asian state's international airport, the country's transportation minister said Tuesday.

On September 26, about 70 passengers and crew on the Kyrgyz Airlines Tu-154 jet had a lucky escape as the plane, bound for Moscow, made an emergency landing after hitting an American Hercules tanker at the Manas International Airport, which hosts a U.S. airbase. The Hercules reportedly landed on the wrong runway.

"A state commission declared that blame for the incident at the Manas International Airport rests with the crew of the American plane," Nurlan Sulaimanov, the Kyrgyz minister of transportation and communications, said.

"The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry is currently negotiating compensation for damages inflicted on the country by the actions of the American crew," the minister added.

Earlier in September, the minister said that the jet, which lost almost one-third of a wing in the collision with the tanker, was a presidential carrier occasionally used for regular flights.

"It is a presidential plane, which is also sometimes used for regular flights," Sulaimanov said. "It is the only Tu-154 our [national] airline operates."

Alexander Asteonov, head of the Kyrgyz government's civil aviation department, said it was the third incident involving the American military since the airbase opened at Manas in 2001 to support the U.S.-led antiterrorism campaign in Afghanistan.