No survivors among 170 on board crashed Russian airliner
A Russian passenger jet with at least 170 people aboard crashed in eastern Ukraine today, and a Russian news agency cited Ukrainian emergency officials as saying there were no survivors.
Tetyana Lytvynova, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Emergency Situations Ministry, could not immediately confirm the RIA-Novosti report.
Russian news agencies said officials had ruled out terrorism as a cause.
The Tupolev Tu-154 plane was en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg when it sent an SOS message. It then disappeared from radar screens. It was flying over eastern Ukraine at about 2.30pm (12.30pm Irish time) at the time, Russian and Ukrainian emergency officials said.
Russian emergency spokeswoman Irina Andriyanova said that 30 bodies had been found. She said there were 171 people aboard – 160 passengers, including six children, and 11 crew members. Lytvynova said there were 160 passengers and 10 crew members on board. The discrepancy could not immediately be explained.
“According to their information, the plane most likely was hit by lightning. There was no damage on the ground. After it fell, it broke apart and burst into flames,” Andriyanova said in televised comments.
The Interfax news agency cited witnesses as saying the plane was intact when it hit the ground. RIA-Novosti later cited Andriyanova as saying “terrorism has been ruled out".
The plane belongs to St. Petersburg-based Pulkovo airlines, which is among Russia’s largest air companies.
Rescuers were working at the site of the crash, near the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, about 400 miles east of Kiev, Ukrainian officials said.
Interfax quoted Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Igor Krol as saying a fire broke out on the plane at 32,800 feet and that the crew decided to try to make an emergency landing. However, it also quoted Russian aviation official Alexander Neradko as saying that the plane might have run into strong turbulence.
The incident is the third major plane crash in the region this year, and comes less than two months after at least 124 people died when an Airbus A-310, of the Russian airline S7, skidded off a runway and burst into flames on July 9 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
On May 3, an A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia crashed into the Black Sea while trying to land in the Russian resort city of Sochi in rough weather, killing all 113 people aboard.
Russian-made Tu-154s are widely used by Russian airlines for many regional flights.
| Related Stories: |
|
