Russian Passenger Plane Crashes in Ukraine (Update2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...8&refer=europe
Russian Passenger Plane Crashes in Ukraine (Update2) By Daryna Krasnolutska and Sebastian Alison Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A Russian airliner carrying at least 154 passengers caught fire and smashed into the ground in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the second Russian flight to crash in six weeks. ``The plane caught fire in mid-air and the crew attempted to make a forced landing,'' said Ihor Krol, a ministry spokesman, by phone today from Kiev. The Pulkovo Airlines-operated Tupolev Tu-154 plane carrying 154 passengers was at an altitude of 10,000 meters (32,800 feet) when flames became apparent, he said. The Anapa-St. Petersburg flight disappeared from Ukrainian radar screens at 2:37 p.m. Kiev time. The flight was en route from the Black Sea town of Anapa to St. Petersburg, where Pulkovo is based, when it crashed 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Donetsk, the main industrial city in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, near the village of Sukha Balka, Krol said. Anapa airport serves several Russian Black Sea resorts, popular summer destinations. Helicopters discovered burning wreckage when they arrived at the scene, Krol said. At least 122 people died on July 9 when an Airbus A310 jet operated by OAO Sibir Airlines ran off the runway and burst into flames after landing at Irkutsk in Siberia. Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin, currently in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, near Anapa, ordered Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to set up a state commission to investigate the crash, said a Kremlin press spokesman who declined to be identified. Transport Minister Igor Levitin will head the commission. Interfax news reported that the Pulkovo Airlines flight was carrying 170 people, citing the Russian aviation agency. It said the flight was bound for St. Petersburg, where Pulkovo Airlines is based. The Moscow office of the airline wasn't available to comment. Thirty bodies have been found at the crash site, Russia Today reported, citing an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman. Russian passenger numbers surged 9.2 percent in the first half of this year to 14.8 million, as economic growth made domestic and international air travel more affordable, the Transport Ministry said Aug. 17. According to the Interstate Aviation Committee, a body in the Commonwealth of Independent States which investigates air crashes, Russia's safety record has improved since 1996 when it had 43 air incidents including 14 fatal crashes which killed 219 people. In 2004, Russia registered six fatal crashes that killed 50 people, and seven crashes last year that took 56 lives. The committee did not include two flights on Aug. 24, 2004, that were blown up by suicide bombers with the loss of 90 people. In total, 101 people died in 13 crashes in 13 former Soviet republics last year, down from 293 in 1996. To contact the reporter on this story: Sebastian Alison in Moscow at . Last Updated: August 22, 2006 10:18 EDT |
Russian Passenger Plane Crashes in Ukraine (Update2)
gRunge wrote: well contact the reporter and leave us alone with your funny jokes about such accidents It would only be "funny" if you were on the craft and you were the *only* fatality, gRunge... -- Best Greg "Corgi bit me 'nads" a écrit dans le message de news: ... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...8&refer=europe Russian Passenger Plane Crashes in Ukraine (Update2) By Daryna Krasnolutska and Sebastian Alison |
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