Eight survive, as Russian jet crash kills dozens

ST. Petersburg, Russia – A passenger jet crashed in heavy fog and burst into flames late Monday on a highway in northwestern Russia – just short of a runway where fog had failed – killing 44 people, officials said. Eight people survived the crash.

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The Tupolev 134 aircraft belonging to the airline RusAir, was en route from Moscow to the city of Petrozavodsk, spokesman for the Ministry of Emergencies Oksana Semyonova told the Associated Press.

The ministry said in a statement that 44 people website died. Eight survivors, including a 10-year-old boy and a female flight attendant, were hospitalized.

"The child was in very bad condition," a medical worker told a local television crew at the scene.

Semyonova said the plane fell in the final approach to the airport Besovets outside the northern city of Petrozavodsk, making a forced landing about one mile below the runway, breaking outside and then burst into flames.

It was unclear if the plane had tried to land on the road, or just happened to fall there, he said. Petrozavodsk is the province of Karelia near the Finnish border, about 400 miles northwest of Moscow.

"Adverse weather conditions" A video made by a witness on her cell phone showed flames soaring from the wreckage in the night sky.

"Everything was on fire," one witness who refused to give his name told a television crew.

Authorities had no immediate explanation for the accident, but the Interfax news agency said airport director Alexei Kuzmitsky as saying there were "adverse weather conditions."

Compounding the problems of the pilot was the failure of high-intensity lighting of the runway, which is supposed to develop during periods of low visibility, Alexei Morozov, deputy head of the Interstate Aviation Committee, told ITAR-TASS news agency.

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A spokesman RusAir who refused to give his name told The Associated Press that the plane was in good working order and that the weather conditions, though difficult, was "not critical."

The Tupolev 134, along with his older brothers, the Tu-154, was the workhorse of Soviet and Russian civil aviation since 1960. The model that crashed was built in 1980, had a 68-person capacity and a range of about 1,240 miles.

The photos on the website of the ministry showed fragments of metal scattered on a road in thick fog hung over forest land in the background. A landing system off the ground was the only identifiable part of an airplane.

Black box recorders found The plane carrying 52 people, including nine crew members, Semyonova said. Russian news agencies said Russian Premier League soccer referee Vladimir Pettay and a Swedish citizen was among the victims.

Karelia Branch of the Ministry of Emergencies said contact via radio with the pilot was lost at 11:40 pm local time (3:40 pm ET). The black box flight data recorder recovered, news agencies said.

Most of the passengers were Russian, but a Swedish citizen was also on board, Interfax news agency said.

The accident happened on the eve of the scheduled appearance of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Tuesday at the Paris Air Show in support of dozens of Russian companies seeking sales contracts.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has exchanged his French Tupolev jet manufacturing executive in April criticized shortcomings domestically-built airplanes and poor performance on the safety of the nation.

Russia and other former Soviet republics have some of the worst safety record of air traffic in the world, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Experts blame insufficient government controls, poor pilot training and a cost reduction culture for the low security level, making emergency landings reported with alarming regularity.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski was among 96 people killed when the Tu-154 crashed in heavy fog while trying to land near the western city of Smolensk in April 2010. In 2006, three crashes – two in Russia and one in Ukraine – killed over 400 people.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Submited at Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 at 10:00 am on News by john
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