71 killed after Russian jet crashes after take-off outside Moscow
● Plane vanished from radar screens shortly after start of internal flight
A Russian passenger plane carrying 71 people crashed near Moscow shortly after taking off from one of the city’s airports yesterday.
The country’s transport minister said there were no survivors.
The Saratov Airlines regional jet disappeared from radar screens a few minutes after departing from Domodedovo airport en route to Orsk, a city 1,000 miles south-east of Moscow.
Fragments from the antonov An-148 airliner were found in the Ramenskoye area, about 25 miles from the airport.
Footage on state television showed them strewn across a snowy field with no buildings nearby.
No ground casualties were reported.
Transport minister Maxim Sokolov said that, “judging by everything, no one has survived this crash”.
He did not give the number of people on board but reports said the plane carried 65 passengers and six crew.
Russia’s investigative committee said all possible causes were being explored.
Russian President Vladimir Putin put off a planned trip to Sochi in order to monitor the investigation.
The An-148 was developed by Ukraine’s Antonov company in the early 2000s and manufactured in both Ukraine and Russia.
Russian state news agency Tass said the plane that crashed had been flying since 2010, with a two-year break because of a shortage of parts.
The plane was ordered by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot, but was put into storage in 2015-17 because of the parts shortage.
Tass reported that it reentered service for Saratov Airlines last February.
Shabby equipment and poor supervision plagued Russian civil aviation for years after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, but its safety record has improved markedly in recent years.
The last large-scale crash in Russia occurred on 25 December, 2016, when a Tu-154 operated by the Russian defence ministry on its way to Syria crashed into the Black Sea minutes after take-off from Sochi. All 92 people on board were killed.
In March 2016, a Boeing 737-800 flown by Flydubai crashed while landing at Rostov-on-don, killing all 62 people aboard.
An onboard bomb destroyed a Russian Metrojet airliner soon after taking off from Egypt’s Sharm al-sheikh resort, killing 224 people, in October 2015.
Saratov Airlines is a Russian airline headquartered in Saratov and based at its airport.
Founded in 1931, it was called Saratov United Air Squad and was a part of Aeroflot. Until late 2013 the airline was branded Saravia.
In December 2013, Saratov Airlines became the first Russian operator of Embraer E-jets, with the arrival of two Embraer 195 aircraft.
On 14 October, 2015, the Russian aviation authorities sanctioned Saratov Airlines after a violation of security rules.
The airline was therefore no longer allowed to operate flights to destinations outside Russia from 26 October, 2015.
However, by May 2016, the airline had resumed international charter services.
It serves destinations including Vladivostok, Volgograd, Tiblisi in Georgia and Yerevan in Armenia.
Mr Putin was to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas today in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, 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.