MOSCOW, (AFP) - All 145 passengers and crew were killed when a Russian plane crashed, for reasons as yet unknown, in southern Siberia overnight, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
The three-engined jet, owned by regional airline Vladivostokavia, had been flying from Yekaterinburg in the Ural mountains to the Far East port city of Vladivostok. (Read photo caption below)
It crashed Tuesday 20 kilometres from Irkutsk, as it was preparing to make a routine refueling stop, shortly after contact was lost with air traffic control, the ministry was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying.
All passengers on board flight 352 and the nine crew members were killed, the ministry said.
Reports said that the aircraft came down in an area studded with summer holiday homes, or dachas, causing a blaze. They added that there were no casualties on the ground.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, left Lensk in Siberia late Tuesday to coordinate operations as an enquiry was launched into the tragedy.
Since 1968, when the first TU-154 was produced, there have been 28 fatal crashes involving the aircraft, which is also in wide use by airlines in other former Soviet states, China and in Cuba, according to the private Aviation Safety Network.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A Russian passenger plane with 133 passengers and 10 crew on board crashed on July 3, 2001 near the Siberian city of Irkutsk. An Emergencies Ministry spokesman reported there were no survivors. (Reuters Graphic)