MOSCOW – A passenger aircraft crashed and burst into flames after take-off in Siberia yesterday, killing 31 people and putting the spotlight on Russia’s poor air-safety record before Vladimir Putin’s return as president.
There were 13 survivors but one later died after being rushed by helicopter to hospital in the city of Tyumen, some 1,720km (1,070 miles) east of Moscow, emergency officials said.
Television footage showed the UTair airlines ATR-72, which had snapped in two, lying in a snowy field with only the tail and rear visible.
An investigation committee said the most likely cause of the crash was a technical malfunction as the 21-year-old twin-engine, turbo-prop plane carried its four crew and 39 passengers on a flight to the oil town of Surgut.
“I went out on to my porch and heard a bang, saw a small flash and smoke came out,” a local resident, called Alexei, told RIA news agency. “It turned, with smoke coming out, started to lose height and came down in the field.”
He said the aircraft appeared not to be on the usual flight path: “It should have been behind my house but it was in front of it.”
The investigation committee said the aircraft had notched up 35,000 flying hours since going into operation in 1992 and had not had a “serious” technical check since 2010.
Yuri Alekhin, head of the regional branch of the emergencies ministry, told Russian television at the scene of the crash that the black-box flight recorder had been found and contact had been lost with the aircraft just over three minutes after take-off.
Surgutneftegas, Russia’s fourth-largest oil company, said in a statement it had lost some employees in the crash but did not say how many and did not name them.
Last September a passenger aircraft hit a riverbank near the city of Yaroslavl after take-off, killing 44 people.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Mr Putin, who is prime minister until he takes over as president on May 7th, called for improvements to Russia’s air safety after that crash, including better training and improved conditions on board. But their opponents yesterday drew attention to the lack of action since then. – (Reuters)