The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Passenger plane crashes minutes after taking off
Regional flight comes down, killing all 71 people on board
There are no survivors from a passenger plane that crashed near Moscow, Russia’s transport minister has said.
Maxim Sololov said that “judging by everything, no one has survived this crash” after the An-148 regional jet went down a few minutes after take-off yesterday.
The plane disappeared from radar screens shortly after taking off from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport.
News reports said 71 people – 65 passengers and six crew – were on board the plane heading for the city of Orsk, about 1,000 miles south-east of Moscow.
Wreckage was found in the Ramenskoye area about 25 miles from the airport.
It was unclear if there were any casualties among people on the ground at the crash site.
The Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Sheremetsinsky, a spokesman for the regional governor, as saying that all passengers were residents of the Orenburg region.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said all possible crash causes were being looked into.
President Vladimir Putin postponed a planned trip to Sochi to closely monitor the investigation.
He was due to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas today in the Black Sea resort where the president has an official residence.
Instead, Mr Abbas will meet Mr Putin in Moscow in the latter part of today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Russian media said the jet belonged to Saratov Airlines.
Tass said the plane had first flown in 2010, with a two-year break because of a shortage of parts.
It was ordered by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot, but was put into storage during 2015-2017 because of a lack of parts.
Tass reported that it re-entered service for Saratov Airlines in February 2017.
The jet was developed by Ukraine’s Antonov company in the early 2000s, and was manufactured in both Ukraine and Russia.