Russia Searches for Body Fragments After Plane Crash

Date: 12 February 2018 - 21:07

News ID: ۴۹۹۹۲

MOSCOW (AP) -- Tramping through snowy fields outside Moscow, emergency workers found both flight data recorders from a crashed Russian airliner as they searched Monday for debris and the remains of the 71 passengers and crew who died.
The An-148 twin-engine regional jet bound for Orsk in the southern Urals went down minutes after taking off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport Sunday afternoon. All 65 passengers and 6 crew on board were killed.
Russian investigators quickly ruled out a terror attack but will not speculate on possible reasons for the crash.
The Investigative Committee, Russia's premier state investigative agency, said the plane was intact and there had been no fire on board before it hit the ground.
The plane's fuel tanks exploded on impact, scattering debris across 30 hectares (74 acres) in deep snow, according to the Emergency 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 conversation recorders, which are crucial for determining the crash's cause.
Officials said the search for victims' remains at the crash site will take a week. The 65 passengers ranged in age from 5 to 79, according to a list posted by the Russian Emergencies Ministry. Most victims were from Orsk, where the authorities declared an official day of mourning on Monday.
The plane was operated by Saratov Airlines, which said the plane had received proper maintenance and passed all the necessary checks before the flight. The plane was built in 2010 for a different airline that operated it for several years before putting it in storage. Saratov Airlines commissioned it last year.
The airline said the plane's captain had more than 5,000 hours of flying time, 2,800 of them in an An-148. The other pilot had 812 hours of experience, largely in that model.
Despite Saratov Airlines' move to ground its An-148s, another Russian operator of the plane, Angara, based in Irkutsk in eastern Siberia, said it will keep flying them. Russian government agencies that also operate the aircraft haven't grounded them either.
The An-148 once was touted as an example of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, but it fell into trouble as relations between the two neighbors unraveled following Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.