44 die as aging Russian airliner misses runway
Source: Agencies |
June 22, 2011, Wednesday
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An aging Russian airliner went down in heavy fog and burst into flames just short of a runway in northwestern Russia, killing 44 people in a crash officials blamed on pilot error. Eight people survived, dragged from the burning wreckage by local villagers.
The RusAir Tu-134 plane had taken off from Moscow and was moments from landing at Petrozavodsk Airport when it slammed into a nearby highway just before midnight on Monday, Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Oksana Semyonova said.
Preliminary information shows the crash was caused by the jet's pilot missing the runway in adverse weather conditions, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
Russia's top investigative agency said it was also looking into whether technical problems with the 31-year-old plane might have contributed to the crash. There were no suspicions of foul play.
The plane's approach was too low, so it clipped a tree and then hit a high-power line - causing the airport's runway lights to go off for 10 seconds - before slamming into the ground, Sergei Izvolsky, a spokesman for the Russian air transport agency, said.
The Emergencies Ministry said 44 people died, including four with dual United States and Russian citizenship. Local residents rescued the eight survivors, including a mother, her 9-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter. They were in a critical condition in hospital.
Petrozavodsk is near the Finnish border, about 640 kilometers northwest of Moscow. The plane crashed about 100 meters from a small village, but no casualties were reported on the ground.
Speaking from the crash site, the federal air transport agency chief, Alexander Neradko, said the plane appeared to be intact when it hit a pine tree. "There was no sign of a fire or explosion on board the plane before the impact," he said.
Sergei Shmatkov, an air traffic controller who oversaw the plane's approach, said visibility was bad but the pilot still decided to land.
Shmatkov said he ordered the crew to abort the landing the moment the runway lights went off but it already was too late.
The plane was carrying 52 people, including nine crew members. The four victims who had dual US and Russian citizenship were named as Lyudmila Simanova, Alexander Simanov, Yelizaveta Simanova and Yekaterina Simanov, but the US Embassy had no immediate information on them.
Other victims included a Swedish citizen, a Dutchman, two Ukrainians, Russian Premier League soccer referee Vladimir Pettay and one man with dual Russian-German citizenship.
Despite the plane's age, RusAir said it was in good working order.
The twin-engined Tu-134, along with its larger sibling the Tu-154, has been the workhorse of Soviet and Russian civil aviation since the 1960s with more than 800 planes built. The model that crashed was built in 1980, had a capacity of 68 people and a range of about 2,000 kilometers.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered condolences to the victims' families, and the transport minister flew to the crash site to oversee the investigation. Putin was attending the Paris Air Show yesterday to support dozens of Russian firms seeking sales contracts.
The RusAir Tu-134 plane had taken off from Moscow and was moments from landing at Petrozavodsk Airport when it slammed into a nearby highway just before midnight on Monday, Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Oksana Semyonova said.
Preliminary information shows the crash was caused by the jet's pilot missing the runway in adverse weather conditions, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
Russia's top investigative agency said it was also looking into whether technical problems with the 31-year-old plane might have contributed to the crash. There were no suspicions of foul play.
The plane's approach was too low, so it clipped a tree and then hit a high-power line - causing the airport's runway lights to go off for 10 seconds - before slamming into the ground, Sergei Izvolsky, a spokesman for the Russian air transport agency, said.
The Emergencies Ministry said 44 people died, including four with dual United States and Russian citizenship. Local residents rescued the eight survivors, including a mother, her 9-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter. They were in a critical condition in hospital.
Petrozavodsk is near the Finnish border, about 640 kilometers northwest of Moscow. The plane crashed about 100 meters from a small village, but no casualties were reported on the ground.
Speaking from the crash site, the federal air transport agency chief, Alexander Neradko, said the plane appeared to be intact when it hit a pine tree. "There was no sign of a fire or explosion on board the plane before the impact," he said.
Sergei Shmatkov, an air traffic controller who oversaw the plane's approach, said visibility was bad but the pilot still decided to land.
Shmatkov said he ordered the crew to abort the landing the moment the runway lights went off but it already was too late.
The plane was carrying 52 people, including nine crew members. The four victims who had dual US and Russian citizenship were named as Lyudmila Simanova, Alexander Simanov, Yelizaveta Simanova and Yekaterina Simanov, but the US Embassy had no immediate information on them.
Other victims included a Swedish citizen, a Dutchman, two Ukrainians, Russian Premier League soccer referee Vladimir Pettay and one man with dual Russian-German citizenship.
Despite the plane's age, RusAir said it was in good working order.
The twin-engined Tu-134, along with its larger sibling the Tu-154, has been the workhorse of Soviet and Russian civil aviation since the 1960s with more than 800 planes built. The model that crashed was built in 1980, had a capacity of 68 people and a range of about 2,000 kilometers.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin offered condolences to the victims' families, and the transport minister flew to the crash site to oversee the investigation. Putin was attending the Paris Air Show yesterday to support dozens of Russian firms seeking sales contracts.
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