44 killed in Russian plane crash

Mangalore Today News Network

Moscow, Jun 21: At least 44 people were killed and eight others injured today when a Tu-134 passenger plane crash landed on a highway and burst into flames in Russia’s northern republic of Karelia.

 

The plane belonging to the Rus-Air airlines was flying from Moscow to the Karelian capital Petrozavodsk when it crash landed on a highway, one kilometre from the airport, said emergencies situation ministry spokesperson Irina Andrianaova."There were 52 people on board including nine crew.Forty four people were killed and eight survived, including an air-hostess," Andrianova told Rossiya 24 TV.

According to eyewitness accounts carried by the TV channels, the plane was landing in bad weather with fog and rain and its landing path was perpendicular to the location of runway of the nearby airport.TV channels reported that the high-intensity landing lights on the runway were switched off despite the poor visibility and there was a five second power outage."This power outage could have proved lethal as the pilot of any landing aircraft feverishly looks for light on the ground, the pilot of the ill-fated airliner mistook the nearby highway for the runway," a former pilot was quoted as saying by Vesti FM radio.Valentina Ulich, the health and social development minister of the republic of Karelia, said that among the killed in the crash was one foreigner.He was a rescuer from Sweden.Both flight recorders have been recovered from the crash site. .