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INVESTIGATORS WILL TODAY examine numerous possible causes of one of Russia’s worst ever aviation accidents that saw a passenger plane carrying 71 people crash near Moscow minutes after take off, killing everyone on board.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it would consider explanations including human error, technical failure and weather conditions, as the country has experienced record snowfall in recent weeks. But it did not mention the possibility of terrorism.
The Antonov An-148 plane went down in the Ramensky district on the outskirts of Moscow at 11.28 Irish time yesterday after taking off from Domodedovo airport in the capital.
“65 passengers and six crew members were on board, and all of them died,” Russia’s office of transport investigations said in a statement
Three children were among the fatalities on a list published by Russian authorities.
The flight was operated by the domestic Saratov Airlines and was headed for Orsk, a city in the Ural mountains.
More than 400 people and 70 vehicles had been deployed to the crash site, the country’s emergency ministry said.
The site was enveloped in heavy snow, making it difficult to access, with emergency workers forced to park their vehicles and reach the wreckage by foot. Others used snowmobiles and drones to survey the scene.
Russian transport minister Maksim Sokolov said “genetic expertise” would be needed to help identify the victims, adding that it could “take two or three months”.
‘Shock wave’
“I felt a shock wave,” Maria, a resident of a village near the crash site, told AFP.
The windows shook.
The transport investigations office said the plane disappeared from radar screens around four minutes after take-off.
A regional official said the aircraft’s black box had been retrieved.
The Russian-made plane was reportedly seven years old and bought by Saratov Airlines from another Russian airline a year ago.
Saratov was founded in the 1930s and flies to 35 Russian cities. Its hub is Saratov Central Airport in southern Russia.
The governor of the Orenburg region, where the plane was heading, told Russian media that “more than 60 people” on board the plane were from the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered “his profound condolences to those who lost their relatives in the crash,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Putin also cancelled plans to travel to Sochi to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. Instead, the meeting will take place in Moscow.
Grieving relatives
Local media website Ural56.ru in the Orenburg region showed footage of distressed relatives at Orsk airport, where the plane had been due to land.
Andrei Odintsov, the mayor of Orsk, told Russian state television that six psychologists and four ambulances with medics were working with the families in the small airport.
Orsk is the second biggest city in the Orenburg region, near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan.
A crisis centre was also set up at Domodedovo, Moscow’s second-largest airport in terms of passenger numbers.
Russia has suffered numerous plane crashes, with airlines often operating ageing aircraft in dangerous flying conditions.
A light aircraft crashed in November in Russia’s far east, killing six people on board.
In December 2016 a military plane carrying Russia’s famed Red Army Choir crashed after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.
The choir had been due to give a concert to Russian troops operating in Syria.
Pilot error was blamed for that crash.
In March 2016, all 62 passengers died when a FlyDubai jet crashed in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport.
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If you have no idea what the cause is how can you rule out terrorism?
@Walt Jabsco: Because, as I’ve read from other sources, no traces of explosives have been found so far, and the pilot had refused to undergo the deicing procedure, as well as the aircraft maintenance company is under investigation for not following procedure in regards to oil change and air filter replacement.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus:
Terrorism might be unlikely, but until such time as the precise cause has been established (which it hasn’t yet) how can anything be ruled out?
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: “oil change and air filter replacemenr”? Are you having a laugh?
@Walt Jabsco: In that case you can’t rule out exploding mutant gerbils either.
@Dazz: There little ba***rds them gerbils .They get everywhere
@Ger Healy: Why, do you think airplanes magically maintain themselves, and don’t require oil, or air filters?
The Russian prosecutor’s office launched criminal proceedings for suspected violations of air traffic safety rules. They found reports that the airliner had been banned from operating international routes in 2015 and had resumed operation after it changed its policy in 2016. Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Transport (Rostransnadzor) stated that during their examination on the accident aircraft, the airliner had violated the procedure of the oil change in the gearboxes and the washing of the air starter filter.
from: “СК возбудил дело после крушения Ан-148 в Подмосковье”. РИА Новости (in Russian). 11 February 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
Does terrorism have to be mentioned now with every tragedy
@Shaun Gallagher: Unfortunately it’s indicative of the world we live in that it must be considered. To dismiss it and refuse to consider it as a possibility smacks of political interference and indicates it may be the real cause.
@Shaun Gallagher: Only in western countries….the phony war of terrorism.
Interesting name in the passanger manifest. Vyacheslav Ivanov.
@PutinBot 5000:
Doubt it’s the same one that died last october though…
@Walt Jabsco: Vyacheslav Ivanov-Rosatom-Clinton-Uranium.
@PutinBot 5000: Fake news. The Rosatom lad’s name is Vyacheslav Pershukov Alexandrovich (b. 1958).
https://rosatom.ru/en/about-us/governance/management-board/pershukov/
The guy on the plane, Ivanov, was born in ‘86.
You’ll need better sources than /r/TheDonald, brother.
@Malachi: Thanks bro. You’re like a Qi elf :-)
@PutinBot 5000: Lol
I do hope the de-icing was carried out correctly pre flight.
Unfortunately many Russian pilots have a terrible reputation for skipping this vital procedure.
https://youtu.be/5GIU94dg1ek
have your say