Russians look for crash remains
Recorders found; model has spotty safety reputation
MOSCOW — Hundreds of emergency workers searched a field near Moscow on Monday for remains of the 71 victims from the crash of a Russian airliner, and aviation experts began deciphering the jet’s two flight recorders.
Investigators quickly ruled out a terrorist attack in Sunday’s crash of the An-148 regional jet bound for Orsk in the southern Urals. The air disaster has reignited questions, however, about the twin-engine plane that was developed jointly by Russia and Ukraine but phased out of production amid the political crisis between the neighbors.
The model has a spotty safety record, with one previous crash and a string of major incidents in which pilots struggled to land safely. The carrier, Saratov Airlines, has grounded several other An-148s in its fleet.
The plane crashed several minutes after taking off from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, and all 65 passengers and the crew of six were killed.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top agency for looking into such disasters, said that before the crash, the plane was intact and there had been no fire on board.
The plane’s fuel tanks exploded on impact, scattering wreckage across 74 acres, according to the Emergencies Ministry, which used drones to direct the search.
Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told a Cabinet meeting that emergency teams have found both flight data and cockpit voice recorders, key to determining the cause of the crash.
President Vladimir Putin put off a planned trip to Sochi and stayed in Moscow to monitor the investigation. The Kremlin said U.S. President Donald Trump called Putin to express his condolences.
Officials said the search for remains will take a week.
Saratov Airlines said the jet had received proper maintenance and passed all the necessary checks before the flight.
The captain had more than 5,000 hours of flying time, 2,800 of them in an An-148, the airline said. The other pilot had 812 hours of experience, largely in that model.
Another Russian operator that uses the plane, Angara, based in Irkutsk in eastern Siberia, said it will keep flying them.
The An-148, developed by Ukraine’s Antonov company in the early 2000s, once was touted as an example of Russian-ukrainian cooperation, but it fell into trouble as relations between the two countries unraveled following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Most of about 40 such planes built under the cooperative agreement were built by a Russian manufacturer in Voronezh, with Ukraine providing the engines and many other components.