BREAKING NEWS!!! Russia plane crash: 50 dead after Boeing 737 crashes while landing at airport

The Boeing 737 passenger plane was making a second attempt to land and exploded when it hit the runway in Kazan

 

More pics after the cut

A plane crash in central Russia has left 50 people dead - including a son of the president of an oil-rich region in the country.
The Boeing 737 passenger plane crashed while landing in the city of Kazan.

The flight from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport was making a second attempt to la
nd and exploded when it hit the runway.
All 44 passengers and six crew on board were killed following the crash-landing at 15:25 GMT.
Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov’s son, Irek, was on the flight from Moscow to Kazan, according to a passenger list.
Eyewitnesses say the Boeing lost altitude quickly and its fuel tank exploded on impact.

 

Tragic: The plane crash-landed in the city of Kazan 

 

As reported by Russia Today, Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius said: "The plane attempted to land several times.
"One of the [fuel] tanks detonated while the plane was landing.”
A witness who was at the airport at the time of the crash heard a loud bang and felt trembling.
According to local reports, there were high winds and cloudy skies over the airport.
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the largely-muslim region of Tatarstan.
It has a population of 1,143,535 and is the eighth most populous city in Russia.
The flight was operated by the regional Tatarstan airline, a ministry spokeswoman said.

 

Horrific: A plane crash in central Russia has left 50 people dead. This is a file picture of a Boeing 737

Russia’s regional airlines have a poor safety record. In April 2012, at least 31 people were killed when a Russian passenger plane crashed shortly after take-off in Siberia.
In Sept. 2011, a Yak-42 passenger jet carrying members of a major league ice hockey team came down shortly after takeoff and burst into flames near the Russian city of Yaroslavl, killing 44 people.
Russia and the former Soviet republics combined had one of the world’s worst air-traffic safety records in 2010, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, according to the International Air Transport Association.
IATA said last year that global airline safety had improved in 2011 but that accident rates had risen in Russia and the ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States.

source; mirroruk