At least fifty people were
killed when a passenger plane crashed in central Russia on Sunday night,
officials said.
The Boeing 737 from Moscow
exploded after a failed attempt to land at the Kazan international airport, according
to the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Republic of Tartarstan.
Officials said that the plane
had attempted to land several times prior to the crash.
The Tatarstan Emergency
Situations Ministry said 44 passengers and 6 crew members were confirmed dead,
but told Interfax News Service that as many as 52 could have been killed
in the explosion.
Interfax also reported that the
vice premiere of Tartastan confirmed that Irek Minnikhanov, the son of the
president of Tartastan, and Alexander Antonov, the head of FSB (federal
security service) of Tartastan, died in the crash.
The crash was reported at 7:20
p.m. (10:20 a.m. EST), according to Interfax.
The flight was operated by the
regional Tatarstan airline, a ministry spokeswoman told Reuters.
Flight U363 took off from
Moscow's Domodedovo airport at 6:25 pm local time, and crashed just over an
hour later, emergency officials said. The plane was 23 years old.
According to eyewitness reports
to Reuters, the Boeing lost altitude quickly and its fuel tank exploded on
impact.
There were high winds and cloudy
skies over the airport in central Russia. Temperatures were above zero.
A spokesman for state aviation
oversight agency Rosaviatsia said authorities wouldssearch for the flight
recorders.
"The plane touched the
ground and burst into flame," Sergei Izvolsky said. "The cause of the
crash as of now is unknown."
In a statement, Boeing said,
the company's "thoughts are with those affected by the crash...
[and] Boeing is prepared to provide technical assistance to the investigating
authority as it investigates the accident."
Russia and the former Soviet
republics combined had one of the world's worst air-traffic safety records in
2011, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average,
according to the International Air Transport Association.
IATA said last year that global
airline safety had improved but that accident rates had risen in Russia and the
ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States.
In April 2012, at least 31
people were killed when a Russian passenger plane crashed shortly after
take-off in Siberia.
In September 2011, a Yak-42
passenger jet carrying members of a major league ice hockey team came down
shortly after takeoff and burst into flames near the Russian city of Yaroslavl,
killing 44 people.
The Boeing 737 is the world's
most popular passenger jet in commercial use today. There have been 170 crashes
involving this model of aircraft since it came into use.
In the Russian city of Perm in
2008, a Boeing 737 exploded just a kilometers above the ground minutes before
landing, killing 88 people.
Source: Worldnews
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