Russian plane crashes after takeoff, killing 31
Source: Agencies |
April 3, 2012, Tuesday
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A PASSENGER plane crashed and burst into flames after takeoff in Siberia yesterday killing 31 people and again putting the spotlight on Russia's poor air-safety record.
Thirteen survivors were pulled from the wreckage but one died later in hospital in nearby Tyumen, some 1,720 kilometers east of Moscow, officials said.
Television footage showed the UTair airlines ATR-72, which had snapped in two, lying in a field with only the tail and rear visible. Emergency workers were sifting through the wreckage and clearing away snow.
An investigative committee said the most likely cause of the crash was a technical malfunction as the 21-year-old twin-engine, turbo-prop plane carried its four crew and 39 passengers on a flight to the oil town of Surgut.
"I went out onto my porch and heard a bang, saw a small flash and smoke came out. It turned, with smoke coming out, started to lose height and came down in the field. If it had turned a bit further, it would have hit us," a local resident told RIA news agency.
He said he often saw aircraft fly past, and the plane appeared not to be on the usual flight path. "It should have been behind my house but it was in front of it."
The investigative committee said the plane had notched up 35,000 flying hours since going into operation in 1992 and had not had a "serious" technical check since 2010.
Yuri Alekhin, head of the regional branch of the Emergencies Ministry, told Russian television that the "black box" flight recorder had been found. Contact had been lost with the plane just over three minutes after take-off, he said.
The crash was the worst in Russia since a passenger plane slammed into a riverbank near the city of Yaroslavl after takeoff on September 7 last year, killing 44 people and wiping out the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, who is prime minister until he takes over as president on May 7, called for moves to improve Russia's air safety after that crash, including better training and improved conditions on board.
But yesterday their opponents drew attention to the lack of action since then and the fact that Transport Minister Igor Levitan remains in office.
"It's typical that 'the minister of catastrophes' does not receive even a cosmetic reprimand for all the chaos on public transport. They cover for each other," opposition ecologist Yevgenia Chirikova said.
Putin said last September that airlines should put passengers' safety above commercial considerations and he ordered the government to draft proposals for improving condition on planes and at airports. But he ignored calls to dismiss Levitan.
Putin, 59, is under pressure to do more to tackle chronic problems such as corruption and Russia's poor safety record.
Russia and the former Soviet republics combined for one of the world's worst air-traffic safety records last year, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, according to the International Air Transport Association.
Thirteen survivors were pulled from the wreckage but one died later in hospital in nearby Tyumen, some 1,720 kilometers east of Moscow, officials said.
Television footage showed the UTair airlines ATR-72, which had snapped in two, lying in a field with only the tail and rear visible. Emergency workers were sifting through the wreckage and clearing away snow.
An investigative committee said the most likely cause of the crash was a technical malfunction as the 21-year-old twin-engine, turbo-prop plane carried its four crew and 39 passengers on a flight to the oil town of Surgut.
"I went out onto my porch and heard a bang, saw a small flash and smoke came out. It turned, with smoke coming out, started to lose height and came down in the field. If it had turned a bit further, it would have hit us," a local resident told RIA news agency.
He said he often saw aircraft fly past, and the plane appeared not to be on the usual flight path. "It should have been behind my house but it was in front of it."
The investigative committee said the plane had notched up 35,000 flying hours since going into operation in 1992 and had not had a "serious" technical check since 2010.
Yuri Alekhin, head of the regional branch of the Emergencies Ministry, told Russian television that the "black box" flight recorder had been found. Contact had been lost with the plane just over three minutes after take-off, he said.
The crash was the worst in Russia since a passenger plane slammed into a riverbank near the city of Yaroslavl after takeoff on September 7 last year, killing 44 people and wiping out the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, who is prime minister until he takes over as president on May 7, called for moves to improve Russia's air safety after that crash, including better training and improved conditions on board.
But yesterday their opponents drew attention to the lack of action since then and the fact that Transport Minister Igor Levitan remains in office.
"It's typical that 'the minister of catastrophes' does not receive even a cosmetic reprimand for all the chaos on public transport. They cover for each other," opposition ecologist Yevgenia Chirikova said.
Putin said last September that airlines should put passengers' safety above commercial considerations and he ordered the government to draft proposals for improving condition on planes and at airports. But he ignored calls to dismiss Levitan.
Putin, 59, is under pressure to do more to tackle chronic problems such as corruption and Russia's poor safety record.
Russia and the former Soviet republics combined for one of the world's worst air-traffic safety records last year, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, according to the International Air Transport Association.
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