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Russian plane crash kills all 71 on board

Posted at 11:03 AM, Feb 11, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-11 11:03:28-05

MOSCOW, Russia (FOX NEWS) — A Russian passenger aircraft with 71 on board crashed shortly after takeoff outside Moscow on Sunday and there are no survivors, officials said.

The plane was an An-148, a regional jet belonging to Saratov Airlines, that had taken off from Domodedovo Airport and was headed to Orsk about 1,000 miles southeast of Moscow, REN-TV reported.

The Moscow Inter-Regional Transport Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement to Interfax that all people on board the plane have died.

In this screen grab provided by the Life.ru, the wreckage of a AN-148 plane is seen in Stepanovskoye village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. Russia's Emergencies Ministry says a passenger plane has crashed near Moscow and fragments of it have been found. (Life.ru via AP)

In this screen grab provided by the Life.ru, the wreckage of a AN-148 plane is seen in Stepanovskoye village, about 25 miles from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018.  (Life.ru via AP)

“The plane was carrying 65 passengers and six crewmembers. All of them died,” the agency’s press service said in a statement.

A source from Russia’s emergency services told Interfax those on board “had no chance” of survival, and that the wreckage from the plane was spread over a wide area around the crash site.

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to the families of those killed, and ordered an investigation into the crash, according to Interfax.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement that Putin “expresses deep condolences to all those who lost their relatives and friends in this disaster.”

Russia Airport Reaction

A man reacts in an airport in Orsk, Russia after a plane with 71 people on board crashed shortly after takeoff from Moscow.  (REUTERS)

“The president instructed the government to set up a special commission in connection with the plane crash in the Moscow region and instructed the relevant agencies to conduct the necessary search operations,” Peskov told Interfax.

In this screen grab provided by the Life.ru, the wreckage of a AN-148 plane is seen in Stepanovskoye village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. Russia's Emergencies Ministry says a passenger plane has crashed near Moscow and fragments of it have been found. (Life.ru via AP)

In this screen grab provided by the Life.ru, the wreckage of a AN-148 plane is seen in Stepanovskoye village, about 25 miles from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018.  (Life.ru via AP)

Fragments of the jet were found in the Ramenskoye area about 25 miles from the airport, according to REN-TV. Footage on state television showed them strewn across a snowy field with no buildings nearby. It was unclear if there were any casualties among people on the ground at the crash site.

@flightradar24

According to @RT_com there were 71 passengers and crew on board flight

@flightradar24

The speed and altitude graph for flight show a descent from 6200 feet to 3200 feet during the last minute before the ADS-B signal was lost about 20 km south-east of Domodedovo Airport.https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/ra-61704#106596d0 pic.twitter.com/ppf5rD9k7E

View image on Twitter

The flight took off from Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport and spent about 5 minutes in the air before a signal was lost about 12 miles southeast of the airport, according to Flightradar24, a flight-tracking website.

Witnesses in the village told local media they saw a burning plane falling from the sky, according to Sky News.

A local resident told REN-TV she heard an explosion.

In this screen grab provided by the Life.ru, the wreckage of a AN-148 plane is seen in Stepanovskoye village, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. Russia's Emergencies Ministry says a passenger plane has crashed near Moscow and fragments of it have been found. (Life.ru via AP)

In this screen grab provided by the Life.ru, the wreckage of a AN-148 plane is seen in Stepanovskoye village, about 25 miles from the Domodedovo airport, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018.  (Life.ru via AP)

“I left the house, saw the plane, an explosion was heard and the sky turned red,” the unnamed woman told the television station.

View image on Twitter

@MchsRussia

К ликвидации последствий крушения самолета Ан-148 привлечены силы и средства общей численностью более 150 человек и свыше 20 единиц техники.
Приведены в готовность силы центра «Лидер», отряда Центроспас и Ногинского спасательного центра, а также вертолет Ми-8 Жуковского АСЦ МЧС.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a tweet the recovery process would involve 150 people and 20 vehicles, and that the crash scene was only accessible on foot due to weather conditions.

It is not immediately clear what caused the crash, with weather conditions and pilot error said to be among the possible reasons. Russia’s Investigative Committee said all possible crash causes were being looked into.

Russia’s state news agency Tass said the plane had been flying since 2010, with a two-year break because of a shortage of parts.

Russia's S7 Airlines aircraft takes off at the Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, Russia, November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov - RC15C9AA7A50

Russia’s S7 Airlines aircraft takes off at the Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, Russia, November 2, 2017.  (REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov)

The plane, an Antonov An-148 jet, was ordered by Rossiya Airlines, a subsidiary of Aeroflot, but was put into storage during 2015-2017 because of a lack of parts. Tass reports it re-entered service for Saratov Airlines in February 2017. The jet was developed by Ukraine’s Antonov company in the early 2000s, and was manufactured in both Ukraine and Russia.

While it remains to be seen what caused the crash on Sunday,  shabby equipment and poor supervision had plagued Russian civil aviation for years after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, but its safety record has improved markedly in recent years.

The last large-scale crash in Russia occurred on Dec. 25, 2016, when a Tu-154 operated by the Russian Defense Ministry on its way to Syria crashed into the Black Sea minutes after takeoff from the southern Russian city of Sochi. All 92 people on board were killed.

In March 2016, a Boeing 737-800 flown by FlyDubai crashed while landing at Rostov-on-Don, killing all 62 people aboard.

An onboard bomb destroyed a Russian Metrojet airliner soon after taking off from Egypt’s Sharm al-Sheikh resort, killing 244 people in October 2015.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.