41 dead as Russian Superjet-100 crash-lands, bursts into flames at major Moscow airport - UPDATES

RT
Sun, 05 May 2019 16:40 UTC

Panicked passengers rushed to evacuate a burning Aeroflot plane at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after the Sukhoi Superjet-100 made a mind-blowing, fiery crash-landing at a second attempt. At least 5 people were injured.

Footage shared on Twitter appeared to show a dense cloud of black smoke pouring out of flight SU1492 parked on the runway as dozens of ambulances were dispatched to the scene. All 78 passengers were evacuated from the burning wreck, and five have been reported injured.

Fire crews rushed to the scene, along with dozens of ambulances. All 78 passengers were evacuated from the burning plane, and at least 10 injuries have been reported.

The commuter aircraft had made several flights earlier on Sunday, and was heading to Murmansk before its terrifying emergency landing.

Comment: Comment: Update from RT:

Only 37 people on board the passenger jet that caught fire during landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport have survived the incident, the Russian Investigative Committee has said.

"According to the updated data that the investigators have obtained, 37 people [out of 78 on board] have survived," the Investigative Committee's spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, told journalists.

The Aeroflot flight SU 1492, en route from Moscow to the Russian northern city of Murmansk, had to turn back to Sheremetyevo after reporting an emergency on board less than half an hour after takeoff.

UPDATE 6th May 2019 12:15:

RT provides the following reports.

Witnesses describe the fire that destroyed the Russian Superjet-100:

At least one person has been confirmed dead in the horrific crash-landing of an Aeroflot Superjet-100 plane with some 80 people on board in Moscow. Witnesses describe how the jet went up in flames as people scrambled to evacuate.

Chilling videos published on social media show the jet sitting on a landing strip of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with its rear engulfed in a firestorm with bursts of flames rising high above the fuselage. At the same time, people are seen desperately evacuating from the front exit and running away from the jet.

"Hell in Sheremetyevo: Sukhoi Superjet 100 en route from Moscow to Murmansk had to turn back because of a fire on board," Dmitry Smirnov, a journalist with Russia's Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, wrote in a tweet accompanying the video. "It burns like a torch while the evacuation ... is still in full swing."

Footage of the fire:

Videos have emerged online showing the plane landing in flames and the chaotic evacuation scenes that followed. People rushed to jump from the plane's front exit as an inflatable ramp was deployed.

Fire engines were reportedly on the spot some two minutes after the plane crash-landed and the blaze was extinguished within minutes, but not before it engulfed the entire tail end of the jet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to those who lost their loved ones in the crash and has ordered the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident. PM Dmitry Medvedev has meanwhile ordered Transport Minister Evgeny Dietrich to create a special commission to look into the crash.

Footage release of people fleeing the plane appears online:

Shocking exclusive video footage shows terrified passengers leaping from the flaming Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, after the fiery crash-landing that took over 40 lives.

Aeroflot Flight SU1492 departed Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on Sunday, bound for Murmansk. The plane quickly returned to Moscow after a fire broke out on board, and landed trailing smoke and fire.

Video captured from the tarmac shows passengers leaping from the aircraft, as flames engulf its body and smoke billows into the air. The people then flee down the runway, away from the wreckage.

"Please, please, guys, come on, hurry up!" a voice behind the camera begs, as people are seen fleeing.

The plane was extinguished by fire crews minutes after the evacuation, and ambulances rushed to the scene to tend to the injured. The final death toll may exceed 41, as some survivors remain in critical condition.

The fire consumed much of the plane's fuselage, stripping the airliner down to its metal frame. Sukhoi said the craft completely burned out.

You can see the footage here.

Footage from inside crash-landed Superjet-100 showing raging inferno emerges:

Filmed by a passenger sitting next to the window looking almost straight into the fire, the extremely distressing footage shows how the plane's blazing engine bursts into an all-out inferno. Screams of women and children can be heard in the background.

The video seems to have been filmed after the ill-fated jet had returned to Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport for its fiery crash-landing, but before the airliner was evacuated.

Investigators reported Sunday night that out of the plane's 78 passengers, only 37 survived. Another seven were reported injured earlier on Sunday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences, and ordered the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident.

Leaked CCTV footage shows the plane bouncing on apporach, hitting the tarmac and rupturing the undercarriage before bursting into flames:

The footage of the crash-landing was captured by an airport security video camera and uploaded to Telegram channel Baza. It shows the aircraft attempting to land at speed, but then bouncing off the runway. Another touchdown attempt is made seconds later, but the plane's undercarriage apparently collapses, smashing its engines and triggering a massive fireball.

Of 78 only 41 people died in the crash.

At least six of the 37 people rescued were rushed to a hospital. Three are now in intensive care after suffering burns and smoke inhalation injuries, health minister Veronika Skvortsova said, in a brief press statement.

The fire engulfed the aircraft's tail within moments. 78 people were on board the aircraft, including 73 passengers and five crew members. Now the investigators say an "updated" toll shows only 37 of those on board have survived.

Earlier, the Russian Investigative Committee confirmed the deaths of 13 people, including two children.

Experts speculate over the possible causes of the crash:

Electrical fire, lightning, or criminal act? Aviation experts on likely cause of Russian plane crash

As investigators tackle the questions about the Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crash-landed in Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport with the loss of 41 lives, two aviation experts told RT that certain possibilities can't be ruled out.

"It's plausible but unlikely," aviation safety assessor Jacques Astre told RT. Although thunderstorms had been reported in the area earlier on Sunday, "Airplanes are designed to withstand lightning strikes," he explained. "Sometimes there is damage, but it's very minor and not to the extent that it could cause the loss of the aircraft."

Astre reckons it's "very likely" that the fire began with an electrical fault. That view is shared by Sultan Hali, a former senior officer with the Pakistani Air Force and a veteran aviator.

"The usual culprit is electronic cables short-circuiting, so this could very well be an electronic fire caused by that," he told RT. Hali added that an electrical fire is one of "the most horrifying" things that a pilot can experience, as it can bring down communications capability.

"If you have lost total communication then you are on your own," he added.

Before declaring a mayday emergency, the Sukhoi's crew had declared a radio failure, before circling Moscow and landing hard back at Sheremetyevo.

Astre suggested that the enormous fireball could have been a result of the hard landing, as it was reported the plane hit the ground three times before staying down. "Viewing the video, it appears to me from the flames and the smoke, that maybe the plane landed hard, compromising the fuel tanks."

Hali added that a jet's undercarriage would not normally collapse had it not been already weakened by "severe" fire. The retired aviator added that, with little yet known about the incident, "the possibility, however faint it may be, of criminal activity cannot be ruled out."

Both experts, who were speaking before the full extent of the tragedy was announced, gave kudos to the fire crews and emergency personnel who attended the scene. They also paid tribute to the Aeroflot crew who managed to keep their cool and evacuate many of the plane's 78 passengers. "This was a very serious emergency and everybody's training kicked in at the right time," Astre said.

Horrifying footage from inside the inferno emerges:

Terrifying footage shot inside the Sukhoi-100 shows its wings burning as the plane travels fast on the landing strip at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Sparks are also seen from the jet's window.

A man's voice is heard calling for calm. In the end of the video somebody commands to get up and go to the exit.

An emergency on board forced the Aeroflot flight SU 1492, en route from Moscow to the Russian northern city of Murmansk, turn back to Sheremetyevo.

A passenger recalls the event:

'Scared to death'

People were scared to death on board the Sukhoi Superjet 100 during its emergency landing, one of the passengers who survived the tragedy said. Forty-one people died after the plane crash-landed and caught fire.

"The flight came back. We had a rough landing. We almost lost consciousness from fear. The plane was bouncing like a grasshopper and started burning already on the ground," Petr Egorov told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Several videos that emerged from inside the plane show the plane's wings engulfed in flames as it rolls fast on the runway. People heard on the video are shouting in panic.

"This plane was landing engulfed in a terrible fire. Firefighters were quickly on the scene but I couldn't see it evacuated from where I was in the terminal," a witness to the tragedy, observing the unfolding calamity from the ground, said.

People rushed to get off the plane via emergency slides as the rear of the plane was engulfed in flames and a thick plume of black smoke rose. It took people around 55 seconds to get off the aircraft, RT correspondent, Igor Zhdanov noted, reporting from the airport. He also managed to speak to one of the witnesses of the crash landing, who was observing the incident from another plane on the runway.

"We sat near the window. I just turned my head and all of a sudden I saw a burning flame with a huge plume of black smoke. Firefighters arrived at the scene within two minutes. They started fighting the fire," the witness said.

"They did not show signs of panic. As the plane was too close to the people waiting on the runway, we did not know it was landing. It looked like it was just 50 meters from the nearest aircraft," he added.

At least 41 people out of 78 people onboard Aeroflot flight SU 1492 died in the tragedy, authorities confirmed, noting that six out of 37 survivors were rushed to a hospital. Officials have yet to confirm the cause of the incident. It's been reported that the connection between the plane and ground control was lost. One of the theories about the accident is that lighting hit the plane.

More details of the event:

Fiery Sukhoi Superjet-100 crash-landing: How it happened

An Aeroflot passenger aircraft caught fire while crash-landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, after an onboard emergency. Forty-one people have died in the tragedy. RT recaps how the tragic events unfolded.

• The aircraft involved in the incident was built in 2017
• The plane underwent its most recent maintenance in April.

• Aeroflot flight SU1492 took off from the Sheremetyevo airport on schedule at 17:50 local time (14:50 GMT).
• The flight was bound for the northern Russian city of Murmansk

• The aircraft had 78 people on board, 73 passengers and five crew members.
• The plane was in the air for some 28 minutes when there was an emergency alert.

• The pilots alerted the airport about their decision to turn back and land and then lost radio contact with air traffic control.
• The jet managed to land at the second attempt around 18:30 local time (15:30 GMT).

• The aircraft bounced off the runway and hit the ground hard; the tail of the plane burst into flames.
• While already on the runway, the plane made a sudden sharp turn and came to a stop not far from other planes waiting for takeoff.

• Firefighters arrived at the crash scene in about two minutes.
• People were leaving the plane through emergency exits in its forward section, as the tail was burning. The evacuation took 55 seconds.
• The fire was extinguished within an hour.

• Forty passengers and a crew member died in the tragedy.
• Several people were hospitalized with smoke inhalation injuries and burns. Three were admitted to intensive care upon arriving in hospitals.
• An investigation led by the minister of transport has been launched.

The captain comments on the event:

Captain of ill-fated Superjet says 'landing speed was normal', fire broke out after touchdown

An Aeroflot captain who piloted the Superjet 100 in Moscow has revealed harrowing details of the accident, saying he had to crash-land with full tanks, which possibly led to the jet catching fire right after its bumpy touchdown.

There was "a bright flash and a bang" moments before the pilots began an immediate descent into Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport, Denis Evdokimov, a captain on the ill-fated Aeroflot flight, told Telegram channel Baza. To make matters worse, communication with the ground failed "because of a lightning strike."

The failure left the crew with no option but to perform a manual landing. They finally managed to establish radio contact and "could only say a couple of words" to the air traffic control, who guided them back to the runway, Edvokimov recalled.

While attempting to land, the jet struck the runway several times, probably damaging the fuel tanks and causing a fire to ignite in the rear of the fuselage. But the captain failed to explain why the touchdown was so hard, only saying that "we had caught fire upon landing."

The crew didn't seem to have any trouble during descent, he said. "The speed wasn't high, it was normal. [We acted] according to the flight manual." However, the jet's weight was much greater than required because of its full tanks, making it extremely challenging to safely land a 45-ton airliner on a runway, the pilot said.

He and his first officer followed a protocol on landing an overweight plane, but it could be the bumpy touchdown that ignited fire on board, Evdokimov suggested.

The plane was flying to Murmansk, a city in the north of Russia, carrying 78 passengers and five crew members. Shortly after take-off, the pilots declared an emergency and turned back. The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the jet circled twice around Moscow before it hit the runway after spending less than half an hour in the air.

The plane was evacuated immediately after coming to a complete stop, with surviving passengers having to escape on emergency exit slides as the engines were engulfed by flames. A total of 41 people on board died in the crash-landing. The 37 survivors comprised 33 passengers and four members of the crew.

Aeroflot, Russia's flag carrier and one of the oldest airlines in the world, currently flies 50 Sukhoi-built Superjets. The planes usually service short- and medium-haul destinations within Russia and abroad.

A stewardess reports her experience:

'I grabbed passengers by the collar and kicked them out': Stewardess recalls evacuation horror

Passengers rushed to exit the ill-fated Superjet 100 while it was still speeding, and some reported that cabin windows were melting, a stewardess recalled after the fiery crash-landing claimed over 40 lives in Moscow.

Lightning struck the plane 10 minutes after take-off, Tatyana Kasatkina revealed in an interview to local media just hours after she survived the emergency landing. "There was strong hail, a noise was heard outside, then a bang occurred," she said, adding that a flash and black smoke could be seen.

The pilot announced that the plane was returning to the airport right away, she said, but indicated that communication was severely impaired. The plane's light signaling was also out of order.

Kasatkina said passengers were gripped by panic as they began to jump off their seats while the plane was still traveling at high speed.

I saw a woman talking on the phone saying, "We're on fire, we're going down" as she was standing in the aisle.

Panic intensified as the plane stopped, but there was no fire inside the cabin, the stewardess said. Some passengers noticed the cabin windows were melting, she recalled.

As the evacuation started, she had to kick people off the plane in order to keep them moving.

When the plane stopped, the evacuation began right away. I did not see [the passengers] anymore, I was just kicking them out the door, so that they didn't get jammed ... Just was grabbing each one by the collar.

A total of 41 people died in the tragedy including steward Maxim Moiseev, officials have confirmed. Moiseev died as he was trying to open the rear door of the aircraft to speed up the evacuation as fire engulfed the back of the plane, a source told TASS news agency.

The Aeroflot flight SU 1492, which was traveling from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk, suffered a crash-landing on Sunday evening shortly after take-off. Leaked CCTV footage suggests the aircraft bounced off the runway and then hit it at full force as its engines burst into flames.

See also:

• Experts puzzled by 2018 spike in air fatalities - 6 big passenger plane crashes
• Report: Huge spike in US military non-combat plane crash fatalities in 2017
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