Connect with us

Aviation

Russia jet carrying 71 people crashes killing everyone on board

Published

on

Florida Police line Stab A gunman killed five people between the cities of Midland and Odessa in Texas Capitol Ohio Chicago shooting Muslim Anambra Club Q Colorado Springs Experiment Jacksonville

Two helicopters have collided in France killing five people

A Russian airliner has crashed after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, killing all 65 passengers and six crew on board.

The Saratov Airlines jet vanished minutes after take-off and crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Moscow.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

The cause of crash is unclear. Investigators and emergency crews are working at the snow-covered site.

The Antonov An-148 was en route to the city of Orsk in the Ural mountains.

Advertisement

Pieces of wreckage and bodies were found spread over a large area. One of the flight recorders has been recovered, officials say.

This is the first commercial passenger jet crash for more than a year – 2017 was the safest year on record for air travel.

What we know so far

The plane took off at 14:27 (11:27 GMT) on Sunday. Contact was lost four minutes later.

Advertisement

READ: RRS nabs man who robs clubbers of phones, purses, gold

Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said it then descended at the rate of 1,000m (3,300ft) per minute.

Eyewitnesses told Russian media that the jet was on fire as it went down.

A Russian official has denied reports that the pilot reported a malfunction.

Advertisement

Who was on the plane?

The official list of passengers and crew has been published (in Russian) by the emergencies ministry.

A child and two teenagers were among the passengers, all but three of whom were from the Orenburg region where Orsk is located, city mayor Andrei Odintsov told Tass news agency.

Two passengers were from Moscow and a third from St Petersburg, he added.

Advertisement

At Orsk airport, a girl whose brother was on the plane was shouting “Bring me back my brother!”, Novaya Gazeta newspaper reported. A man sat sobbing over his mobile phone.

The plane was being flown by an experienced pilot with 5,000 hours of flight time, the airline told Ria-Novosti news agency

What do we know about Saratov Airlines?

Saratov Airlines is based in Saratov, 840km south-east of Moscow.

Advertisement

In 2015 it was banned from operating international flights when surprise inspectors found someone other than the flight crew was in the cockpit.

The airline appealed against the ban and changed its policy before resuming international charter flights in 2016.

It flies mainly between Russian cities but also has destinations in Armenia and Georgia.

Advertisement

Discover more from Chronicle.ng

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading