UPDATE (3 PM MT): Forty-one people are believed to be dead after a fire broke out aboard an Aeroflot flight in Russia Sunday, investigators told Russian news agency Interfax. ORIGINAL STORY: At least 13 people are dead after a fire broke out aboard an Aeroflot flight in Russia Sunday, the country's Investigative Committee said. Two children are among the dead, according to the committee. The Russian Superjet 100 was flying from Moscow to Murmansk when a fire broke out on board. Aeroflot Flight SU1492 returned to Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, making a hard landing, news agency Interfax reported. Russia's Ministry of Health said seven people were also injured as a result of the incident, Russian state news agency TASS reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin orders 'thorough investigation' Videos on social media show the plane engulfed in flames on the tarmac and people evacuating through emergency slides. A passenger in a plane waiting to depart Moscow posted this video on Instagram. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the fiery emergency landing of the Aeroflot jet in Moscow and has ordered a "thorough investigation," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told TASS. "All instructions have been given to conduct the most thorough investigation, [to carry out] the necessary orders to find out the cause of this accident," said Peskov, according to TASS. The plane had 73 passengers and five crew members on board, according to TASS. Aeroflot, the unofficial national airline of Russia, confirmed that the fire occurred but hasn't commented yet on casualties. Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the incident, it said on its website. The committee routinely conducts investigations into major incidents with loss of life.<doc-sep>A Russian Aeroflot flight caught fire as it conducted an emergency landing in Moscow on Sunday evening, killing dozens of people. But what exactly do we know about aircraft, the passengers and how the events unfolded? Timeline of events The Aeroflot flight SU1492 departed from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on 18:03 local time, and was en route for Murmansk. But just over 20 minutes into its 2.5-hour flight time, a radio failure was declared, which developed into an emergency, and prompted the captain to request to return. airlive.net As the aircraft came in to land, video footage showed the plane bouncing on the runway, before its tailend burst into flames. The burning plane eventually came to a halt, and passengers were witnessed fleeing from the wreckage via emergency slides. What do we know about the passengers? There were 78 people in total aboard the flight, 41 of which have died. Russia's health ministry confirmed in a post to Vkontakte on Monday morning that nine people had been taken to hospital for treatment, and three were in a "serious condition". An "incomplete" list of the names of the survivors was posted to the Aeroflot website, which sent condolences to the families of the deceased. "The crew did everything in its power to save passenger lives and provide emergency assistance to those involved," it said in a statement. "Tragically, they were unable to save all those aboard." A government employee in the city of Murmansk and a US citizen are reported to be among the dead. According to a law enforcement official quoted by TASS news agency, the majority of those killed in the incident were believed to have died from poisoning or suffocation from "the products of combustion". One woman transported to hospital with serious injuries was being treated for smoke inhalation and burns covering 15% of her body, a doctor told Russian media. Bodies of the dead have been transported to a morgue, and the process of formal identification is due to begin immediately. What caused the incident? The plane initially declared a radio failure just minutes after taking off from Moscow, but reasons beyond this are not clear. Aeroflot said a "technical error" forced the plane to land, where the engine caught fire. Much speculation about the technical failure and subsequent fire has been made in hours after the incident, but nothing can be confirmed until an investigation has been completed. Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal investigation into the case, listing its avenues to address. “The investigation considers various versions of the incident, among which are insufficient qualifications of pilots, dispatchers and persons who conducted technical inspection of the board; aircraft malfunction; adverse weather conditions.” The black box data recorders have been retrieved from the aircraft, along with other pieces of evidence for further investigation. Several people on social media noted a lack of fire engines seen rushing to the scene in eyewitness videos filmed in the immediate aftermath of the incident. But according to aviation expert Jason Rabinowitz this is nothing untoward. "The aircraft didn't ignite until it was in the process of landing so I'm not surprised [the aircraft rescue and firefighting team] was not present," he told Euronews via email. "They'd only be present if the flight crew requested it or if air traffic control as reason to put them in place." What do we know about the plane? The aircraft involved in Sunday's incident, a Sukhoi Superjet-100, is relatively new, having made its first flight in 2017. The jets were first revealed at the Paris Airshow in 2009 as a hopeful comeback bid for Russian aviation in the international market. Three years later, in 2012, the Superjet-100 received its European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Type Certificate. But despite its brief history, there have been several reported incidents involving the aircraft. In 2012, dozens of people were killed after a Superjet-100 crashed into a mountain in Indonesia during a demonstration flight, which was later blamed on pilot error and air traffic control systems. An engine failure in 2013 led to the failed takeoff of one of the planes, just weeks after Aeroflot were forced to ground ten of its Superjet fleet due to technical issues. By 2016, the entire fleet was grounded by Russia's aviation authority over worries of "metal fatigue", something expected in older aircraft, but not of those less than a decade old.<doc-sep>MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian airliner that took off from Moscow was airborne for just 28 minutes before returning to make an emergency landing while still heavy with unburned fuel, which then ignited after a rough touchdown. Flames quickly engulfed the aircraft, killing 41 of the 78 people aboard. A day after Sunday’s horrifying accident at Sheremetyevo airport, Russian news media quoted the pilot, Denis Evdokimov, as saying he followed procedures for landing with excess weight. But the crew reportedly did not dump any fuel, which is common for flights that have to land soon after takeoff to prevent being overly heavy. The pilot said he was not certain why the plane landed hard. Video showed flames bursting from the jet’s underside as it touched down, then raging across the rear of the Sukhoi SSJ100’s fuselage within seconds as the airliner bounced down the runway. “Everything happened right away, at lightning speed. There was a strong blow — my eyes almost popped out — a second was a little quieter, a third, and then smoke, and it started to burn immediately,” survivor Marina Sitnikova was quoted as telling the magazine Snob. When the plane came to a halt, some of the people aboard plunged down inflatable slides deployed from the forward part of the plane. Some of those who escaped were carrying luggage, raising concerns that grabbing their bags may have delayed an evacuation in which every second was critical. “I do not know what to say about people who ran out with bags. God is their judge,” survivor Mikhail Savchenko wrote on Facebook. Evdokimov said the plane had lost radio communications because of a lightning strike, but it was not clear if that precipitated the emergency landing. A flight attendant said there was a sharp flash soon after the Aeroflot flight took off, bound for the northern city of Murmansk. “We took off, got into a cloud, there was strong hail, and at that moment there was a pop and some kind of flash, like electricity,” flight attendant Tatiana Kasatnika said in a video posted on YouTube. Russia’s main investigative agency said both of the plane’s flight recorders — data and voice —were recovered from the charred wreckage. Agency spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko was also quoted by Russian news agencies on Monday as saying that investigators were looking into three main possibilities behind the cause of the disaster: inexperienced pilots, equipment failure and bad weather. Storms were passing through the Moscow area when the plane landed. One survivor praised the plane’s attendants for helping save him and others. “It was dark and there was gas, very high temperature. They helped people out of there, helped them to descend,” Dmity Khlebnikov said, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda. The SSJ100, also known as the Superjet, was heralded when it went into service in 2011 as a new phase for Russia’s civil aviation industry. It was introduced as a replacement for outdated Soviet-designed aircraft. But the plane has been troubled by concerns about defects in the horizontal stabilizers. Russia’s aviation authority in 2017 ordered inspection of all Superjets in the country because of the problems. A Mexican airline, Interjet, grounded Superjets in December 2016 and later said it was phasing them out of the fleet. Transportation Minister Yevegny Dietrich said Monday that it was too early to decide whether to ground the planes in Russia, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision was not within President Vladimir Putin’s power. One of the dead was flight attendant Maxim Moiseev, Dietrich said. Russian news reports, citing unnamed sources, said the Moiseev was in the fire-stricken back part of the plane and tried unsuccessfully to deploy an evacuation slide. The dead passengers included a recent college graduate from Santa Fe, New Mexico, was on his way to serve as a fishing guide in northwest Russia.<doc-sep>Shocking exclusive video footage shows terrified passengers leaping from the flaming Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, after the fiery crash-landing that took over 40 lives. Aeroflot Flight SU1492 departed Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport on Sunday, bound for Murmansk. The plane quickly returned to Moscow after a fire broke out on board, and landed trailing smoke and fire. Video captured from the tarmac shows passengers leaping from the aircraft, as flames engulf its body and smoke billows into the air. The people then flee down the runway, away from the wreckage. “Please, please, guys, come on, hurry up!” a voice behind the camera begs, as people are seen fleeing. The plane was extinguished by fire crews minutes after the evacuation, and ambulances rushed to the scene to tend to the injured. The final death toll may exceed 41, as some survivors remain in critical condition. The fire consumed much of the plane’s fuselage, stripping the airliner down to its metal frame. Sukhoi said the craft completely burned out. Also on rt.com 13 people, including 2 children, confirmed dead in Superjet-100 crash-landing in Moscow Like this story? Share it with a friend!<doc-sep>
Forty-one people, including two children, were killed when a Sukhoi Superjet crashed and exploded into a fireball at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, say Russian authorities. Aeroflot Flight SU1492 was flying from Moscow to the northern city of Murmansk, with 78 people on board including crew members, when it was forced to turn back. "We took off and then lightning struck the plane," the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily cited one surviving passenger, Pyotr Egorov, as saying. A passenger managed to take video of the engine on fire as the plane bounced on landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. (Nine Supplied) "The plane turned back and there was a hard landing. We were so scared we almost lost consciousness. The plane jumped down the landing strip like a grasshopper and then caught fire on the ground." Video broadcast on Russian television showed flames bursting from the jetliner's underside as it lands and then bounces. The plane apparently did not have time to jettison fuel before the emergency landing. Passengers tried to escape from the burning aircraft but concerns have been raised that some took their luggage off the plane with them. (AP AAP) Forty-one people died in the crash. The plane was carrying 78, including crew, from Moscow to Murmansk. (AP) By the time it landed, the fire fanned by the speed of the aircraft had spread rapidly. The electrical system then shut down and pilots lost all communications. Some observers have raised concerns that fleeing passengers appeared to have carried their luggage off the plane, and that a failure of evacuation procedures may have contributed to the death toll. Normally if passengers exit a plane correctly - and leave their belongings - evacuation from an aircraft should take only nine seconds, experts say. Russian officials are launching a criminal investigation into the aircraft, which was less than two years old. (AAP) The wreckage of the plane covered in firefighting foam at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. (AAP) Because the rear of the plane was ablaze only the front doors could be used. Harrowing video aired by Russian news channel Rossiya-24 showed passengers leaping from the front of the burning aircraft onto an inflatable slide and staggering across tarmac and grass after the emergency landing. Aeroflot says the plane had been forced to turn back after takeoff because of technical problems. The Aeroflot statement did not specify what caused the plane to return to Sheremetyevo Airport. A relative of a victim reacts to the distressing news at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow. (AP/AAP) Another distressed woman waiting for news of the plane disaster. (AP/AAP) The Sukhoi SSJ-100 regional jet was only two years old and was serviced in April, Aeroflot said. The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the plane had circled twice over Moscow before making an emergency landing after just under 30 minutes in the air. Russia's Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into the incident, it said on its website. The emergency landing was so hard that debris had found its way into the engines, sparking a fire that swiftly engulfed the rear of the fuselage, a source told the Interfax news agency. President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed their condolences and ordered investigators to establish what had happened.