44 killed as plane crashes in Russia
TV grab from Russian NTV channel showing rescuers inspecting remains of a plane at a crash site outside Yaroslavl airport yesterday 300 kilometres northeast of Moscow .Photo: AFP
At least 44 people were killed yesterday when a Russian jet carrying hockey players to their first match of the season crashed on takeoff in the latest blow to the country's tainted air safety record.
The Yak-42 passenger jet took off from Yaroslavl airport about 300 kilometres northeast of Moscow just as a two-day political forum expected to be attended by President Dmitry Medvedev got under way.
A source told Interfax that the plane suddenly start listing to the left and crashed about 500 metres away from the Tunoshna airport.
"According to the latest data, there were 45 people on board -- 37 passengers and eight crew. Forty-four people died in the crash and one person survived," a police official told the RIA Novosti news agency.
The local emergencies ministry said the jet was taking members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team to the Belarus capital Minsk for the their first match of the 2011-2012 season.
The team is trained by a Canadian national and has several foreign players on the roster posted on its website.
Two accidents involving Tu-134 and An-24 jets this summer that killed a total 54 people prompted Medvedev to call for most of the aircraft to be retired by January 1 and the rest taken out in subsequent months.
But that move was followed by a series of smaller air accidents as well as a Volga River boat disaster that killed 122 people who were taking a pleasure cruise.
The accidents have tarnished Medvedev's vision of a modern Russia that he promotes in messages ahead of presidential elections next year that can be also contested by Vladimir Putin -- his more nationalist mentor and prime minister.
Comments