737 crash near Moscow

News reporting tonight of a deadly crash of a 737 near Moscow taking the lives of 50.

A passenger plane has crashed at an airport in the Russian city of Kazan, killing all 50 people on board.

A journalist who said she had flown on the same aircraft from Kazan to Moscow earlier on Sunday told Russia's Channel TV that there was a strong vibration during the landing in the Russian capital.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says that although some of Russia's biggest airlines now have very good reputations, frequent crashes by smaller operators mean the country has one of the worst air safety records in the world.

www.bbc.co.uk...

More man more. Throw some weight behind those posts.

From reports on the ground they were on their second approach, and there may have been an explosion in the right wing. Lightning, and high winds and rain at the time.

Also a thread here.

My prayers to the victims and their families.

Wouldn't 50 people be well under the plane's capacity? If so, this could have been much worse.

reply to post by sheepslayer247


They were at about half capacity. The 737-500 carries 132 at full capacity.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Details here - it was at Kazan, not near Moscow - that was where it had come from.

The son of the president of the oil-rich province of Tatarstan and the regional head of the FSB intelligence service were named among those killed when the plane exploded in a ball of fire on hitting the runway.

reply to post by Sammamishman


Yea you don't want to fly in Russia, the oldest fleet and the most air accident in the world.

Prayers to the families.

The Bot

Lightning, high winds, rain... possibly a microburst if, as some reports suggest, the plane hit the ground whilst attempting to abort the landing? Having said that, eyewitness reports are notoriously unreliable, especially in relation to whether fires/explosions occur before, during or after a crash. The crash investigation will no doubt get to the bottom of it.

reply to post by SummerLightning


Usually the microbursts are more common along the edges of the storm. It could be a lightning strike too, they have occasionally caused planes to go down. We'll have to wait to see what the CVR shows to be sure.

It's believed that the son of the airline president was on board.

reply to post by Sammamishman


Hearing about such accidents with many victims is always sad to hear. I wonder about details on what caused this accident, whether machine failure or human errors. The weather conditions were not good, so human failure is very likely.

The plane was coming from Pardubice, Czech Republic and while landing was not able to stop, rammed the airport fence and went on fire.

There were a total of 50 victims, 44 travellers and 6 staff members. Among the victims were the son of Tatarstan President Irek and the head of Tatarstan intelligence agency Aleksandr Antonov.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Sorry, I'll try harder next time. When I saw it on the nightly news and didn't see it on ATS aviation, I threw it up quick.

The President of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan's son Irek Minnikhanov, was among the dead. Anyone know if the father was involved in anything that would lead up to the death of his son?

I don't know anything I can think of. But I'm not familiar with the oil rich president.

reply to post by Sammamishman


There's a video of the crash posted in this thread here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Looks like it nose-dived in almost vertically. Weird, and I'm sure terrifying for those on board.

Not a lightning strike to the wing, like people thought, nor was it a microburst. That's an intact aircraft in the video.

reply to post by Riffrafter


I took the video into Photoshop and enhanced it to see the jet's outline. It is only about 8 - 10 degrees from absolute vertical.

At least one saving grace about the aircraft nose diving in, almost vertically, is the victims went quickly.

reply to post by Sammamishman


I can tell without any enhancement that plane is intact, engines running. It COULD be a rudder reversal, as someone else pointed out, the PCU replacement was not required in Russia, and a -500 would be old enough to have the older PCU that would freeze and reverse.

Personally I don't think it is, as they had been down long enough for it to have unfrozen, and being the second approach, I'm sure they had used the rudder prior to this.

It looks like they initiated a go around due to an unstabilized approach just before the accident.