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Russian Plane Crashes in Siberia
M O S C O W, July 4 -- A Russian airliner plunged into a wooded meadow inSiberia and burned up after unsuccessful attempts to land in thecity of Irkutsk today, killing all 145 people on board.
Aviation officials were examining the two black box flightrecorders from the Tu-154 jet, said Vasily Yurchuk, spokesman forthe Emergency Situations Ministry. Another spokesman said 143bodies or fragments of bodies had been found. Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu, who flew to thesite, said the plane's three engines may have failed for unknownreasons, Russian television reports said.
"It is so hard to comprehend how it could happen ... based onan elementary knowledge of aerodynamics. It is a weird accident,"Shoigu told reporters on the meadow, which was littered withsmoking fuselage. He said the plane was at an altitude of 2,800feet when it suddenly made a 180-degree turn and crashed.
Searching for Signs of Explosives
Security officials did not rule out a terrorist act and weresearching for signs of explosives, the Interfax news agency said. The 15-year-old plane, belonging to the Vladivostokavia airline,crashed about 18 miles outside Irkutsk, which is about 2,600 mileseast of Moscow. The area lies between Irkutsk and enormous LakeBaikal. There were no reports of casualties on the ground. The plane was carrying 136 passengers and nine crew members,Yurchuk said. But officials said the number aboard could be higherbecause of Russian airlines' widespread practice of takingunticketed passengers. Vladimir Rabezhin, deputy manager of Vladivostokavia, said therewere 12 foreigners, probably from China, aboard the airplane,ITAR-Tass said. The passenger list was not to be made public untillater in the day.
Long, Sad Night
Relatives and friends of the passengers spent a harrowing,tearful night in the airports at Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok.When they heard the announcement of no survivors, most went home orflew to Irkutsk to identify bodies, with the promise of $414 ininsurance payments from the airline, Interfax said.
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