Investigators of Russia found many pieces of human body after a plane crash in Argunovo

News24xx.com -  Russian investigators are searching into the cause of the Saratov Airlines plane crash in a snow-covered field near Moscow.

All of the passengers and crewmen, estimated 71 people, were killed when Saratov Airlines jet dropped minutes after taking off from Domodedovo airport on Sunday afternoon, February 11, 2018.

Officials say they are considering the weather conditions, human error and technical failure as the cause. But they did not mention terrorism as one of the causes of the crash.

Antonov An-148 was on it's way to Orsk in the Ural mountains. Saratov Airlines is based in Saratov, 840km southeast of Moscow. In 2015, the aircraft is prohibited to operate by international flights, because the flight inspector's team found other people in the cockpit.

Finally the airline appealed againts the ban and changed its policy before continuing international charter flights in 2016.

Known, the Antonov An-148 plane crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) southeast of Moscow. Because in that place has found wreckage and body parts are strewn over a large area.

An accident investigation agency spokesman, Svetlana Petrenko, said that searches in the region would take at least a day. As quoted from gazeta.ru news agency, before the plane crashed, the pilot did not make an emergency call.

The plane departed at 14:27 (11:27 GMT) on Sunday., February 11 2018. And contact with the plane was gone a few minutes later.

Flightradar24 flight tracker site said shortly after takeoff, the plane was down at the rate of 1,000 m (3,300ft) per minute.

An eyewitness told to Russian media that she saw the plane on fire before it finally crashed.

A criminal investigation has been launched for "violation of regulations for the operation of air transport, resulting in the deaths of two or more persons". Rescue teams must leave their vehicles and reach the crash site by foot.

The official passenger and crew list has been published by the Russian ministry.

A child and two teenagers were among the passengers, three of whom were from the Orenburg region, two passengers from Moscow and other from St Petersburg.

At Orsk airport, a girl whose her brother was on the plane yelled "Take me back to my brother!". Another sad sight shows a man sitting and sobbing when talk on his cell phone.

Antonov An-148 aircraft was flown by an experienced pilot with 5,000 hours of flight time. The plane routes are Russian cities but also have destinations in Armenia and Georgia.

President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. The US and British governments say they are "deeply saddened" by the tragedy.

This is the first commercial passenger crash for more than a year, after in 2017, Russian flights are considered the safest.

 

 

 

 

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