Epress.am News from Armenia
A Tupolev Tu-134 belonging to Rusair and flying from Moscow crashed near Petrozavodsk airport in the Russian region of Karelia Monday night. There were 52 people on board, 44 of which, including 7 children, died, said Assistant Minister for Healthcare and Social Development Sofia Malyavina, RIA Novosti reports.
One of those who died was a Swedish rescue worker, another was from the Netherlands, according to the Emergencies Ministry. Two victims were Ukrainian. There was also a family of four with dual Russian-American citizenship. The rest of the passengers were Russian citizens, reports Russia Today.
The Emergencies Ministry says that the cause of the crash could be anything from pilot error to a mechanical fault, or possibly heavy fog. A criminal case and investigation have been opened.
“At the moment we are inspecting the site of the crash. Fragments of the plane are being found in a 300-meter-wide area. We’ve found and retrieved flight recorders. We’ve taken records of communication between the crew and the ground services from the airport. We’ve also retrieved documents and fuel samples from Domodedovo Airport in Moscow,” said Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin.
Interstate Aviation Committee vice-chair and the head of the Aviation Accident Investigation Commission Aleksey Morozov admitted that the landing lights at Petrozavodsk airport were off when the Tupolev approached to land, and that this together with adverse weather conditions could have caused the tragedy.
According to, chair of the local committee for civilian safety Nikolay Fedotov, however, the lights outage may have been caused by the airliner itself. He said the Tupolev went 150 to 200 meters off course as it approached the runway and hit the high-voltage power line. The collision cut the power supply, and it took several seconds for the backup supply to switch on. Meanwhile, the aircraft hit several treetops with its wing and crashed, the official said.
There is one ethnic Armenian among the passengers, Vahram Sarkis Simovyan, who is a citizen of Ukraine.