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A passenger plane has crashed at an airport in the Russian city of Kazan, killing at least 44 people, reports say. The Boeing 737 had taken off from Moscow, and was reportedly trying to land but exploded on impact. Russian officials told local media there were no survivors. The reports said the plane belonged to Tatarstan Airlines, and crashed about 7.20pm local time (1520 GMT) on Sunday. There were no immediate indications of what may have led to the crash. Kazan is the capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan.
Fifty-two people died as a passenger Boeing crashed while landing in the city of Kazan in central Russia on Saturday, according to the Emergencies Ministry. The passenger aircraft Boeing 737-500 operated by the regional Tatarstan airline exploded after crash-landing in the airport of Kazan at 15:25 GMT, according to Interfax. The jet’s nose reportedly hit the ground during touchdown. The flight was coming from Moscow Domodedovo airport. Reports of casualties vary. According to a spokeswoman from the Emergencies Ministry, 52 people were on board the plane and all are feared dead. Another report from the Federal Air Transport Agency said that 50 people - including six crew members - were on board, all of whom were killed. No children were reported to be on board the plane.
linkedit on 17-11-2013 by scotsdavy1 because: (no reason given)
'One of fuel tanks detonated' An emergency services source told Interfax that the pilots apparently made some mistake when entering the second lap. “The plane attempted to land several times. One of the [fuel] tanks detonated while the plane was landing,” said Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Irina Rossius. The crew reported 500 meters before hitting the runway that the machinery was not ready for landing, an unnamed source told Interfax. According to another report, the plane is believed to have touched the ground with its wing when landing, said a representative of the Investigation Committee, as cited by RIA Novosti. A witness traveling from Kazan to Moscow, who happened to be on the airfield at the moment of the crash, told RT that he heard a loud bang and felt some trembling. The shuttle bus he was on was then diverted back to the terminal. The young man did not report any panic and said that he and other passengers were allowed to pick up their luggage within about 15 minutes after the crash. A criminal case into the violation of flight rules has been initiated. The Interstate Aviation Committee is dispatching its experts to look into the accident. Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to form a commission to investigate the cause of the plane crash in Kazan, said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The Boeing-737 that crashed in Kazan, killing all 50 onboard, went into a nosedive after losing speed at low altitude, Russia’s Interstate Aviation Committee said, citing preliminary data from one of the plane’s black boxes. According to investigators, the plane crashed at a speed of more than 450 kilometers an hour, about 20 seconds after pilots reported going on the second circle, known by the technical abbreviation TOGA (Take Off/Go Around). "While landing, the crew failed to follow the standard set. Considering the status as not landing, the crew began to drift to the second circle in the mode of Toga (Take Off / Go Around),” the Interstate Aviation Committee said in a statement. It has been estimated that after reducing speed to 230 kilometers an hour, the crew began transiting the plane into a dive “which led to the termination of the climb, the start of landing and the growth of the indicated speed," the committee said. Both of the plane’s pilots put the engines on maximum power, raising its nose up at a sharp angle that caused a quick loss of speed. In 45 seconds, the plane reached a height of 700 meters, and then plummeted to the ground. As the crew was trying to land the plane, one of two autopilots was switched off, meaning that the whole process was manual. The aviation committee said that according to data from one of the plane's onboard recorders, the aircraft’s engines and other systems were working fine until the moment the plane hit the ground.