Watch the moments after a Russian passenger plane landed in flames at a Moscow airport
Forty-one people died, but several passengers managed to escape from the flaming jet using emergency exit slides.
По одной из версий, в самолет при взлете попала молния:https://t.co/WgvwyS2vHr pic.twitter.com/DYPQrrwRCh
— Илья Варламов (@varlamov) May 5, 2019
Forty-one people died when a Russian passenger jet crash-landed in a Moscow airport and burst into flames on the runway.
Dramatic videos showed the moments after Aeroflot flight SU 1492 touched down at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with smoke and flames shooting out of its rear end. Another video showed the inside of the plane during the fire. Some passengers escaped the burning aircraft using emergency exit slides.
There's a plane on fire at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. An Aeroflot fight form Moscow to Murmansk declared an emergency and returned to its point of take off. It is a Sukhoi Superjet, built in 2017. Video, credit @JustinGosling pic.twitter.com/UXd17nqnkX
— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) May 5, 2019
The moment the flaming Aeroflot Superjet makes an emergency landing at Sheremetyevo. Reports that a lightning strike may have lit the engine on fire https://t.co/ySVAWQkycp pic.twitter.com/sLKBhW0JLf
— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) May 5, 2019
Пожар на борту SSJ 100 . pic.twitter.com/307NxPihTn
— Коммерсантъ FM 93,6 (@KFM936) May 5, 2019
According to the BBC, at least two children were among the dead and 11 people were injured. Airport authorities said the plane turned back owing to a technical reason that remained unspecified. The crew had sent a distress signal after bad weather caused “malfunctions” shortly after take-off.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered a special committee to investigate the disaster. Al Jazeera quoted crash investigation team spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko as saying, “Investigators soon will begin interviewing victims, eyewitnesses, airport staff and the airline carrier, as well as other persons responsible for the operation of the aircraft.”