71 feared dead in Russian passenger plane crash

MOSCOW- Agence France-Presse

A Russian passenger plane carrying 71 people crashed outside Moscow on Feb. 11 after taking off from the capital’s Domodedovo airport, officials and local media said.,

The Antonov An-148 plane operated by the domestic Saratov Airlines was flying to Orsk, a city in the Urals, and crashed in the Ramensky district on the outskirts of Moscow. Russian news agencies reported 65 passengers and six crew members were on board and all were feared dead.

News agencies said witnesses in the village of Argunovo saw a burning plane falling from the sky.

A source from Russia’s emergency services told Interfax that the 71 people on board “had no chance” of survival.
President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to the families of those on board.

“The president offers his profound condolences to those who lost their relatives in the crash,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
State television aired a video of the crash site, showing parts of the wreckage in the snow.

Russia has seen record high snowfalls in recent days and visibility was reportedly poor.

The Russian-made plane was seven years old and bought by Saratov Airlines from another Russian airline a year ago.

Russian media reported that the emergency services were unable to reach the crash site by road and that rescue workers walked to the scene on foot. Emergency services said in a statement that over 150 rescue workers were deployed to the site.

A source at Domodedovo, Moscow’s second largest airport, told agencies that the plane disappeared from radars within two minutes of takeoff.

Plane crashes are common in Russia, where airlines often operate ageing aircraft in testing flying conditions.
A light aircraft crashed in November in Russia’s far east, killing six people on board.

In December 2016 a military plane carrying Russia’s famed Red Army Choir crashed after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.

The choir had been due to give a concert to Russian troops operating in Syria.

Pilot error was blamed for that crash.

In March 2016, all 62 passengers died when a FlyDubai jet crashed in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport