A passenger plane crashed at an airport in the Russian
city of Kazan today, killing all 50 people on board, reports
say.The Boeing 737 had taken off from Moscow and was
trying to land but exploded on impact at about 19:20
local time (15:20 GMT), officials said. The Emergencies Ministry said there were 44
passengers and six crew members on the Tatarstan
Airlines flight. Investigators are now looking at whether a technical
failure or crew error may have caused the crash.
Among the dead was Irek Minnikhanov, a son of the
president of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan,
according to the official passenger list. Aleksander Antonov, who headed Tatarstan's branch of
the Federal Security Service, was also among the
passengers. The victims also included two children. Reports said the pilot had already tried to land several
times before crashing. The crew had said they were not
ready to land because of technical problems, Russian news
agencies report. A journalist who said she had flown on the same aircraft
from Kazan to Moscow earlier on Sunday told Russia's
Channel TV that there was a strong vibration during the
landing in the Russian capital.
"When we were landing it was not clear whether there
was a strong wind, although in Moscow the weather was fine, or some kind of technical trouble or problem with the
flight," said Lenara Kashafutdinova.
"We were blown in different directions, the plane was
tossed around. The man sitting next to me was white as a
sheet." The airport in Kazan - the capital of Tatarstan - has been
closed since the accident and is expected to re-open on
Monday morning. Kazan lies about 720km (450 miles) east of Moscow. Although some of Russia's biggest airlines now have very
good reputations, frequent crashes by smaller operators
mean the country has one of the worst air safety records
in the world.
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