Russian Plane Fire, 41 Dead After Crash Landing

MOSCOW: Russian passenger plane crash landed, bursting into flames, at least 41 people died on Sunday at Moscow airport.

The footage that has gone viral showed the Aeroflot flight SU 1492 skidded on the runway with fire at the back. Thick black smoke can also been seen in the footage.

The plane made an emergency landing at the airport, the incident took forty one lives which included two children.

Passengers used emergency slides to escape after the plane came to a stop.

According to initial reports

• Superjet 100 was flying from Moscow to Murmansk, a Russian city in the Arctic circle
• Due to an emergency on board, the plane turned back.
• Lighting and thunder had caused communication loss.
• Due to loss of communication the decision to turn back was initiated.
• 41 people including two children lost their lives.

Data from flight tracker Flightradar24 

• The plane took off just after 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET)
• The plane was in air for just under 30 minutes.
• It made a loop in the skies north of Moscow and headed back to the airport.

Shocking video of the incident showed the plane approached the runway at speed before hitting the ground, causing it to launch back in the air before hitting the runway again and bursting into flames.

The plane was carrying Seventy-eight passengers including five crew members. Thirty-seven people survived.

Five are currently receiving treatment in hospital, said Elena Markovskaya, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, a top law-enforcement agency.

A passenger in a plane waiting shared a video on Instagram. It shows fire crews attending the scene as the aircraft sat in flames on the runway.

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The airport said in a statement

The crew reported some anomaly after takeoff and decided to come back.

The aircraft made an emergency landing at around 6:30 local time.

Russian airline Aeroflot said the plane returned due to technical reasons. The engine caught fire on landing.

Earlier reports suggested the plane caught fire in mid-air.

The jet reportedly mad two attempts to land. It managed the landing one the second attempt hitting the ground with its landing gear first and then its nose.

Investigators are working on the various points of inquiry and said it was too early to draw any conclusion and determine the actual cause of the accident.

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