Fifty killed in Russian passenger plane crash

The Boeing 737 belonging to Tatarstan Airlines crashed about 7:20 pm local time, an hour after taking off from Moscow. There were no immediate indications of the cause.

Reports said the plane appeared to lose altitude as it was making a second landing attempt, crashing and catching fire. State television showed a nighttime photograph of firefighters at the side of the aircraft after the flames had been extinguished.

Kazan, a city of about 1.1 million and the capital of the Tatarstan republic, is about 450 miles east of Moscow.

Weather there was reported to be light precipitation and winds of about eight metres per second (18mph).

A spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry, Irina Rossius, said there were 44 passengers and six crew members aboard and all had been killed.

A journalist who said she had flown on the same aircraft from Kazan to Moscow’s Domodedovo airport earlier in the day told Channel One state television that the landing in Moscow had been frightening because of a strong vibration during the final minutes of the flight.

“When we were landing it was not clear whether there was a strong wind, although in Moscow the weather was fine, or some kind of technical trouble or problem with the flight,” said Lenara Kashafutdinova. “We were blown in different directions, the plane was tossed around. The man sitting next to me was white as a sheet.”

Russia has seen a string of deadly crashes in recent years.

Some have been blamed on the use of ageing aircraft, but industry experts point to a number of other problems, including poor crew training, crumbling airports, lax government controls and widespread neglect of safety.