Russian investigators say plane crash death toll rises to at least 41
The Russian Aeroflot passenger plane made an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and caught fire for unknown reasons.
This handout picture taken and realeased on May 5, 2019 by the Investigative Committee of Russia shows a fire of a Russian-made Superjet-100 at Sheremetyevo airport outside Moscow.
Russian authorities said late on Sunday that at least 41 people died when a Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash-landed at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport.
"There were 78 people on board, including crew members," the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on its website.
"According to updated information, 37 out of them survived."
Earlier on Sunday, the investigators said 13 people had been killed in the plane crash.
Television footage showed the Sukhoi Superjet 100 making an emergency landing with much of the rear part of the plane engulfed in flames.
Investigators have started trying to piece together why the Aeroflot jet, which had been flying from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk on Sunday, was forced to make an emergency landing and why that landing went so badly wrong.
Various versions are being looked into, including technical failure, human error, and bad weather conditions.
Asked by reporters at a news conference if the Sukhoi planes should now be grounded pending the outcome of the investigation, Yevgeny Ditrikh, Russia’s transport minister, said:
“There are no grounds for that.”
TRT World's Julia Chapman has more details.
Passengers escaped
Many passengers then escaped via the plane's emergency slides that inflated after the hard landing.
Russian news agencies said the plane, which had been flying from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk before turning back, had been carrying 78 passengers. It was unclear how many crew members had been on board.
Russian investigators said they had opened an investigation and were looking into whether the pilots had breached air safety rules.
Cause unknown
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
The Interfax news agency reported that a rescue team was combing through the charred wreckage of the rear of the plane looking for survivors.
The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the plane had circled twice over Moscow before making an emergency landing after about 45 minutes.
Copyright © 2024 TRT World.