More than 150 people died, including all the crew, when a Russian Airbus A-310 with 200 people on board crashed early on Sunday while landing at Irkutsk airport in Siberia, Interfax news agency quoted local authorities as saying.
”Forty-three people were hospitalised with burns of varying gravity. According to the first information the others are dead,” a source at Irkutsk public prosecutor’s office said.
A total 192 passengers and eight crew were on board the plane.
The accident occurred at 8am on Sunday (11pm GMT on Saturday) as the Sibir airline flight from Moscow was landing at Irkutsk airport in eastern Siberia.
The Airbus went off the runway while landing and hit a concrete wall before catching fire. The plane’s cabin was wrecked and the passengers had to be evacuated from the rear of the craft, rescuers said.
The fire raged for three hours before it could be extinguished, authorities said.
A Russian Aviation Committee team flew out of Moscow for Siberia to start an inquiry into the causes of the accident. – Sapa-AFP