Russian investigators reconstructed the last moments of Sibir airlines flight 778 on Monday while passengers’ relatives prepared for the grim task of identifying their loved ones among at least 122 people who died.
The Russian Airbus A-310, on a domestic flight from Moscow, failed to stop after it touched down in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday.
It careered off the runway, crashed through a concrete wall into garage buildings and burst into flames.
Investigators hope the plane’s black box flight recorders, which were flown to Moscow, would yield vital information about the tragedy that killed more than half the 203 people on board.
Transport Minister Igor Levitin told a news conference that as of 3am GMT, 122 bodies had been recovered from the wreckage. Russian news agencies earlier reported that 124 bodies had been recovered.
Levitin said 57 people were in hospital with burns, trauma and the effects of smoke inhalation.
Six people were still unaccounted for, he said. Officials say at least 17 passengers, who escaped the crash, had left the airport without seeking medical help.
Many of those on board were children, including 14 pre-teen children, flying for holidays on Lake Baikal, a popular Siberian spot in summer, media reported.
”It was awful. I saw people burning, they were burning,” Margarita Svetlova, who survived the crash, told Russia’s First Channel television.
”I probably lost consciousness for a minute … I unfastened my seat belt. I ran and started shouting and swearing, looking for an exit … The inflatable escape chute wouldn’t inflate, but I jumped all the same. I was lucky, I just hurt my leg a bit.”
Sibir airlines published a list of 193 passengers, eight crew and two company officials on board at an emergency website, www.bort778.info.
Interfax news agency said that measures to identify the bodies of people killed in the crash would begin on Monday morning.
President Vladimir Putin declared Monday a day of mourning. – Reuters