A Russian passenger plane carrying 71 people crashed near Moscow on Sunday minutes after taking off, killing everyone on board in one of the country’s worst ever aviation disasters. Investigators said the Antonov An-148 plane went down in the Ramensky district on the outskirts of Moscow at 2:48 p.m. (1128 GMT) after taking off from Domodedovo airport in the capital. “Sixty-five passengers and six crew members were on board, and all of them died,” Russia’s office of transport investigations said in a statement. Three children were among the fatalities on a list published by Russian authorities. The flight was operated by the domestic Saratov Airlines and was headed for Orsk, a city in the Ural mountains. Russia’s Investigative Committee said numerous possible causes of the crash would be considered, including weather conditions as the country has experienced record snowfall in recent weeks. It will also consider human error and technical failure, but it did not mention the possibility of terrorism. More than 400 people and 70 vehicles had been deployed to the crash site, the country’s emergency ministry said. The site was enveloped in heavy snow, making it difficult to access, with emergency workers forced to park their vehicles and reach the wreckage by foot. Others used snowmobiles and drones to survey the scene. Russian transport minister Maksim Sokolov said “genetic expertise” would be needed to help identify the victims, adding that it could “take two or three months”. ‘Shock wave’ “I felt a shock wave,” Maria, a resident of… [Read full story]
TAIPEI - Taiwan's TransAsia Airways said on Thursday that 48 people were killed and 10 survived when one of its turboprop passenger planes crashed after an aborted landing during stormy weather. Flight GE222 was carrying 54 passengers and four crew members on a domestic flight when it crashed on Wednesday at Magong on the Penghu island chain, TransAsia said, clarifying conflicting death tolls given by officials previously. Two French medical students were among the dead, the foreign ministry in Paris said. The ATR 72-500 was flying from the southwestern city of Kaohsiung to the islands off the west coast and…... [read more]
PANO - Mrs. Annette Herfkens, the sole survivor of a plane crash in Khanh Hoa province 22 years ago, and her daughter arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on August 11th. During the visit, the Dutch woman hopes to meet with leaders of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Chung, Head of the search and rescue mission after the accident. Besides, she plans to meet local media and present her autobiography "Turbulence: A survival story", her personal account of the crash, return to O Kha valley (Son Trung commune, Khanh Son district, Khanh Hoa province), the…... [read more]
A passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan's commercial capital of Almaty on Tuesday, killing 20 people, news agencies quoted SCAT airline as saying. The plane had been en route from the city of Kokshetau in northern Kazakhstan to Almaty in the southeast of the country when it crashed near the village of Kyzyl Tu, Interfax news agency said. Almaty and the surrounding area were veiled in thick fog on Tuesday. SCAT is based in Kazakhstan and operates extensive domestic services and some international flights. It was the second plane crash in the Central Asian country and former Soviet republic in just…... [read more]
At least six people died and around 20 were injured when a plane crash-landed in Russia on Saturday in heavy fog, officials and the carrier said. The Tu-134 with 57 people on board was flying from the Siberian city of Surgut to Samara on the Volga river, where it crashed as it was trying to land at the airport. "The fog was very heavy and the plane's wing touched the ground," said an Emergency Ministry spokeswoman. "Its fuselage then collapsed and it crash-landed." Reuters pictures showed the wrecked plane lying in two pieces, one upside down, off the runway. Crash…... [read more]
A Cuban airliner on a flight to Havana crashed in central Cuba, killing all 68 people on board including 28 foreigners, officials said Friday via state media. The plane operated by state-run Aerocaribbean "fell to the ground in the region of Guasimal," after the pilot reported an emergency, according to a statement by Cuba's Civil Aeronautics Institute read on state television. "There were no survivors" from the flight which departed Thursday afternoon from the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba bound for the capital, the official website Cubadebate.cu reported. It was the Communist-ruled island's worst air disaster in 21 years.…... [read more]
