8539
From: kay.so.or, [DNS_Address]
Subject: 50 dead in Russian airliner crash
URL: http://news.yahoo.com/official-50-dead-russian-airliner-crash-164610279.html
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MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian passenger airliner crashed Sunday night while trying to land at the airport in the city of Kazan and officials said all 50 people aboard were killed. The Boeing 737 belonging to Tatarstan Airlines crashed about 7:20 p.m. local time (1520 GMT; 10:20 a.m. EST). There were no immediate indications of what may have caused the crash. Weather in the city soon after the crash was reported to be light precipitation and winds of about 8 meters per second (18 mph). Kazan is about 720 kilometers (450 miles) east of Moscow, where the flight originated. A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry, Irina Rossius, said there were 44 passengers and six crew members aboard and all had been killed. Russia's last plane crash came in January, when a Russian-made Tupolev belonging to Red Wings airline careered off the runway at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, rolled across a snowy field and slammed into the slope of a nearby highway, breaking into pieces and catching fire. Investigators say equipment failure caused the crash, which killed five people. |
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8541
From: jeffersonzuma, [DNS_Address]
Subject: son of Tatarstan's governor;A.Antonov,FSB head Tart. branch
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The Tatarstan Airlines plane was trying to make a second landing attempt when it touched the surface of the runway near the control tower, and was "destroyed and caught fire," said Sergei Izvolky, the spokesman for the Russian aviation agency. The Emergencies Ministry said there were 44 passengers and six crew members aboard the evening flight from Moscow and all had been killed. Kazan, a city of about 1.1 million and the capital of the Tatarstan republic, is about 720 kilometers (450 miles) east of the capital. The ministry released a list of the dead, which included Irek Minnikhanov, the son of Tatarstan's governor, and Alexander Antonov, who headed the Tatarstan branch of the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB. ... A journalist who said she had flown on the same aircraft from Kazan to Moscow's Domodedovo airport earlier in the day told Channel One state television that the landing in Moscow had been frightening because of a strong vibration during the final minutes of the flight. "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." Tatarstan is one of the wealthier regions of Russia because of its large deposits of oil. It is also is a major manufacturing center, producing trucks, helicopters and planes. About half of the people who live in the republic are ethnic Tatars, most of whom are Muslims. |
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